ER/PR -

Does hormone therapy only help prevent a reoccurence in the breasts?  Is breast cancer either ER+ or ER-, or are there degrees of how slightly or strongly a cancer is positive?  Are there any benefits to hormone therapy (Aridimex) if the cancer is ER-?

Thank you

[CCF-RN,MSN-JS]

Dear Her2nue, 1) The idea behind the use of hormone therapy in treating breast cancer is to decrease estrogen levels in the body that may stimulate the growth of cancer.  Hormone therapy is used after surgery to try to prevent or minimize the growth of microscopic deposits of tumor cells that might grow into a recurrent tumor, it is also used in cases of metastatic breast cancer to control the growth of disease.

2)Pathologists use several techniques to test hormone receptors on tissue, and determine if the breast cancer cells respond, or attach, to estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors on the cell. Breast cancer is termed ER (or PR)-positive if its cells have more than a pre-specified baseline