MOLECULAR-BASIS OF STEROID AND GROWTH-FACTOR RECEPTORS AS PROGNOSTIC VARIABLES IN BREAST-CANCER

Recent studies have begun to utilize measurements of several different receptors in predicting clinical outcome of breast cancer patients. There is now an extensive body of literature for the receptors for the steroid hormones estrogen and progesterone in this respect. More recent work has begun to establish receptors for polypeptide growth factors EGF receptor and erbB2 as useful indicators as well. This review focuses on the molecular aspects of regulation of function and expression of all of these receptors. By understanding regulation of these receptors it is hoped that further biological insight will be gained into the process of malignant progression of breast cancer and further clinical insight will be gained in predicting the outcomes of therapies.