Steroid hormone receptors and sex chromatin frequency in breast cancer

Cytosol and nuclear estrogen receptors and cytosol progesterone receptors were measured in 17 primary breast tumors and compared with sex chromatin frequencies. In cases with sex chromatin frequencies of greater than 20% there were 7/7 tumors with cytosol estrogen and progesterone receptors, 6/7 with cytosol and nuclear estrogen receptors, and 6/7 with all 3 receptors. This high proportion of receptor positive cases was not observed at lower sex chromatin frequencies. Sex chromatin frequencies in all the cytosol estrogen and progesterone receptor positive tumors were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in the receptor negative tumors. Sex chromatin frequencies were not significantly different in the other groups. Our results suggest a possible association between the presence of steroid hormone receptors and sex chromatin frequencies of greater than 20%.