Letter to the Editor regarding the paper by Aurilio et al., A meta-analysis of oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 discordance between primary breast cancer and metastases

Sir,We have read with great interest the article in press ofAurilio et al., A meta-analysis of oestrogen receptor, pro-gesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factorreceptor 2 discordance between primary breast cancerand metastases (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2003.10.004), which will appear in Eur J Cancer. In the paper,the Authors have performed a meta-analysis of the stud-ies published in the literature concerning the discor-dance rate in oestrogen receptor (ER), progesteronereceptor (PgR) and HER2 status between primarytumour and corresponding relapse. It is well known thata considerable controversy concerns the issue of hor-mone receptors (HRs) expression as well as HER2 sta…