Receptors and breast cancer: do we know it all?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G C Chamness.
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The role of cytoplasmic estrogen receptor (ER) assays in determining therapeutic strategies for advanced breast cancer is certainly well established. The use of ER assays in the primary breast tumor specimen to predict for early recurrence and ultimate survival is a new finding, however, and will probably be employed in future trials of adjuvant therapy. The prevalence and significance of nuclear-bound ER still requires additional clarification. Our previous suggestion that progesterone receptor measurements might be a useful marker for hormone dependence in advanced breast cancer is gaining support and may soon have a place in routine therapeutic decision-making. The emphasis on early adjuvant therapy has hastened the search for a safe endocrine therapy that would have good patient compliance and achieve remission rates comparable to previous agents and procedures. Antiestrogens show promise of meeting these requirements. We are now beginning an era in which primary and secondary systemic therapies for breast cancer can be based on sound biologic principles. The empirical approach is outdated.
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The human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 does not require estrogen for growth, but paradoxically its growth is inhibited by antiestrogens. Our results show that, unlike normal target cells, MCF-7 cells carry most of their estrogen receptors in their nuclei even when these receptors are not charged with estrogens. The receptors for androgen and for progesterone, on the other hand, are localized in the cytoplasm as usual. Therefore, it is possible that the growth of these abnormal cells is stimulated by estrogen receptor in spite of the absence of the hormone and that the binding of antiestrogen molecules antagonize this stimulation.
Daily injections of estradiol or the antiestrogen tamoxifen initially stimulate uterine weight increase and progesterone receptor synthesis, though continued tamoxifen fails to maintain the increased weight. The stimulatory actions of both estradiol and tamoxifen are inhibited or reversed by a single injection of progesterone. It has been hypothesized that progesterone antagonizes estrogen action by reducing estrogen receptor levels, but in the present experiments neither cytoplasmic nor nuclear estrogen receptor was affected. We conclude that progesterone acts at a point beyond estrogen receptor availability or translocation to antagonize estrogen action.
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Standard dextran-coated charcoal (DCC) and sucrose gradient centrifugation assays for estrogen receptor were compared in a series of human breast cancer tissues. From a quantitative standpoint the results were remarkably similar. A simplified version of the DCC assay compared to the sucrose gradient assay yielded acceptable results. We conclude that, in spite of the lack of specificity controls inherent in the sophisticated standard assays, the simplified DCC assay might be useful if the biopsy specimen is too small to provide the number of aliquots for a standard DCC assay or sufficient protein for a sucrose gradient analysis. It also might be useful in research laboratories attempting to develop assays for multiple receptors or other constituents in a single tumor biopsy specimen.
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Cytoplasmic estrogen receptor can exist either free (R) or bound to estradiol-17beta (RE). Both forms can be precipitated from cytosols by protamine sulfate. After protamine precipitation R binds 3-H-estradiol-17beta quantitatively at either 0 degrees or 30 degrees, while precipitated RE binds 3-H-estradiol-17beta only at 30 degrees by exchanging with previously bound hormone. Using these observations, we have developed a method for separate determination of both cytoplasmic R and RE. This method should also be applicable for assay of other steroid receptors, especially in cases where interfering components are present in the whole cytosol.
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Estrogen receptor is shown to be present in the livers of adult rats. The receptor binds estradiol-17beta with a Kd of 1 x 10(-10) M and sediments at 8 S in sucrose gradients. Other estrogens and anti-estrogens compete for estradiol binding, while nonestrogenic steroids do not. Receptor levels fall dramatically after hypophysectomy, but can be partially restored within 18 hours by a single injection of prolactin. It is known that prolactin critically regulates the level of its own receptor in the liver, and we now suggest that it also exerts a primary control over the availability of liver estrogen receptor.
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