Rates for breast cancer characteristics by estrogen and progesterone receptor status in the major racial/ethnic groups.
It has been reported that age-specific breast cancer rates vary by estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor status. We report breast cancer rates for age-at-diagnosis, stage-at-diagnosis, histological grade and type by estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PgR) receptor status in six major racial/ethnic groups. The average annual age-adjusted rates for breast cancers with estrogen receptor positive (ER+), ER-, progesterone receptor positive (PgR+), PgR-, ER+PgR+, ER+PgR-, ER-PgR+ and ER-PgR- are determined from 123,732 breast cancers with known ER status, diagnosed from 1992 to 1998 from 11 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registries. For each racial/ethnic group, their ER+ (ER+PgR+ and ER+PgR-) age-specific rates increased with age (but at a slower pace after ages 50-54) while their ER- (ER- PgR+ and ER-PgR-) age-specific rates did not increase after ages 50-54. The rank orders of the rates among the racial/ethnic groups varied by ER/PgR status. The stage I rates were greater than the stage II rates for the ER/PgR groups except for ER- and ER- PgR- cancers. The grade 2 (moderately differentiated) rates were greater than the grades 3 and 4 (poorly differentiated and undifferentiated cancers) rates for ER+ cancers, but not for ER- cancers. These results suggest that although breast cancer is a disease with enormous heterogeneity, the multiple types of breast cancer can be separated into distinct subgroups by their ER status, and perhaps by their ER/PgR status, and their cancer characteristics may be important in understanding the multiple nature of breast cancer.
Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-8341, USA. kc10d@nih.gov
Kenneth C
KC
Chu
William F
WF
Anderson
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009376:Neoplasms, Hormone-Dependent / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D012042:Registries; D018426:SEER Program; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone