title: Estrogen and progestin receptor assay in fine needle aspirates of breast cancer: methodological aspects.
abstract: A methodology, originally built up in our laboratory, for the simultaneous determination of estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors on small samples of tumor tissues, has been adapted to fine needle aspirates (FNA) of breast tumors. The method is based on a simultaneous incubation of aliquots of high-salt (0.4 M KCl) cytosols with tritiated estrogen and progestin tags. The mixture of receptor-bound ligands is isolated by dextran-coated charcoal and extracted by ethanol. The extracted ligands are separated quantitatively by HPLC and counted by liquid scintillation. FNA provides sufficient cellular material for ER and/or PR assay by single point (5 nM) dextran-coated charcoal (DCC) assay. FNA samples, being contaminated by blood, [3H] R 2858 and [3H] O 2058 are appropriate tags for ER and PR respectively, giving lowest non-specific binding. Sixty-five simultaneous estrogen and progestin receptor determinations on FNA at time of diagnosis were compared to the individual assays performed on the surgical sample obtained from the same patients a few weeks after diagnosis. The correlation between the 2 sets of determinations is excellent in 60 cases with sufficient FNA cellularity. This correlation validates the reliability of estrogen and progestin receptor determination on FNA in the majority of clinical cases.
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001769:Blood; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008722:Methods; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis*; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000032:analysis*; D013048:Specimen Handling
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone