Comparison of Estrogen Receptor and Progesterone Receptor in Ductal Carcinoma and Lobular Carcinoma With Regard to Age Prevalence

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common women’s cancers, and the number of cases is increasing worldwide. Objective: The current study compared invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) and invasive ductal carcinoma with regard to the prevalence of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and age prevalence. Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 225 women diagnosed with invasive ductal or lobular carcinoma who were admitted to the Department of Surgery of Baqiyatallah hospital between March 2014 and March 2015. The ER and PR levels reported were based on the pathologists’ interpretation of assay results; both ER and PR were estimated to be positive when immunoperoxidase staining of the tumor cell nucleus was more than 10%. Results: The most common malignancy was invasive ductal carcinoma found in 213 patients (94.7%) with a mean age of 49.30 ± 12.25 years (0.706). The most common subtype of invasive ductal carcinoma was NOS (82.6%); patients of this type had a mean age of 49.68 ± 12.27 years. Among patients with infiltrative ductal carcinoma (IDC), 129 (60.6%) of them were ER positive. In patients with ILC, 11 cases (91.7%) were ER positive (P < 0.03). Among the patients who had IDC, 107 (50.2%) of them were PR positive. Also, 6 patients who had ILC (50.0%) were ER positive (P < 0.98). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the age prevalence of breast cancer in Iran is about 10 years sooner than the rest of the world. In addition, the prevalence rates of positive estrogen and progesterone receptors were lower in this study than in the majority of other studies, and these 2 features worsen the prognosis in the treatment of Iranian patients.