%0 Journal Article
%T Hormone replacement therapy use dramatically increases breast oestrogen receptor expression in obese postmenopausal women
%A James S Lawson
%A Andrew S Field
%A Dinh D Tran
%A Nehmat Houssami
%J Breast Cancer Research
%D 2001
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/bcr318
%X In this study, oestrogen receptor (ER)-¦Á expression is examined using standard immunoperoxidase technique.Normal breast samples of 11 Australian postmenopausal women have been included in the ER-¦Á study; the result showed a strong correlation (r2 = 0.80) between ER-¦Á expression in normal breast epithelial cells and body mass index (BMI) in normal women who currently use HRT.This finding confirms that the possibility of increased risk of breast cancer associated with increased ER-¦Á expression in normal breast epithelial cells, in turn associated with high BMI and the use of HRT.Use of HRT by postmenopausal women is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer by a factor of 1.02 for each year of use (10% develop breast cancer after 5 years of HRT use) [1]. The expression of ER-¦Á appears to increase in the normal breast tissue of postmenopausal women who use HRT [2]. High BMI (BMI = weight in kilograms/ [height in metres]2) is also associated with elevated risk for postmenopausal breast cancer [3]. Accordingly, it is of interest to determine whether there is any association between BMI and ER-¦Á expression in normal breast epithelial cells in normal premenopausal and postmenopausal women, who do not have breast or other cancers and who are current users and nonusers of HRT.Samples of breast tissue were collected from the archives of the Department of Anatomical Pathology at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia. The samples had been obtained by open surgical and core biopsy from 32 premenopausal and 21 postmenopausal Caucasian Australian women, who had had biopsies taken in order to exclude breast cancer and for whom data regarding age, menopausal status, use of HRT, height and weight were available. The participants were recruited serially by going backwards in time from the most recent date of collection. The number of participants was dependent on the availability of specimens and relevant data. Only two out of the 32 premenopausal women were currently u
%K breast cancer
%K hormone replacement therapy
%K oestrogen receptor (ER)-¦Á expression
%K body mass index
%U http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/3/5/342