Abstract
Background
Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with varying clinical behaviors and responses to endocrine therapy. In particular, estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer can present with various subtypes, and the effectiveness of anti-hormone therapy on ER-low-positive tumors is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate and characterize ER-positive subtypes in patients admitted to the Surgical Oncology Clinic in the National Hospital of Jableh in Syria between 2020 and 2022.
Patients and Methods
This study included 120 patients diagnosed with breast cancer; the data from each patient’s report were collected to classify them according to grade, stage, LNR, tumor size, and nodal stage.
Results
The prevalence of ER-low-positive subtype was 23.33%. There was a significant difference between ER-negative and ER-positive subtypes concerning age, grade, stage, and LNR. Additionally, we confirmed a variation between ER-low-positive and ER-high-positive tumors, which may explain the difference in therapeutic response in ER-positive tumor patients taking anti-ER drugs.
Conclusion
Further research is necessary to study the association between therapeutic response and ER-staining intensity breast cancer subtypes.