Investigation of Sex Hormone Levels in Chinese Women With Invasive Breast Cancer

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2) and luteinizing hormone (LH) can serve as indicators in the determination of menopausal status. NCCN clinical practice guidelines for breast cancer recommend detecting the levels of FSH and E2 for amenorrhea patients less than 60 years of age. But the detection method and the corresponding reference ranges indicating postmenopausal status are not mentioned. In addition, the reference limits vary a lot among different equipments and methods when it comes to diagnosis of menopause, thus it is difficult to set universal criteria. So in this study, four widely used methods and instruments in China are used to detect plasma levels of FSH, E2 and LN of premenopausal and postmenopausal patients. Instruments and methods must be one of the following four categories: microparticle chemiluminescent(Beckman),acridinium ester chemiluminescence (Siemens),acridinium ester chemiluminescence (Abbott) and electrochemiluminescence（Roche）.

Inclusion criteria

• Invasive breast cancer patients confirmed through pathology.
• For postmenopausal group: patients at the age ≥ 60 years with more than one year of menopause, or patients having undergone bilateral oophorectomy.
• For premenopausal group: patients with regular menses during recent 3 months and having never received luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogue therapy.
• Patients who meet the above criteria can be enrolled whether they have received anti-cancer treatment or not.

Exclusion criteria

• patients less than 60 years old who are amenorrhoeic but have not received bilateral oophorectomy or medical castration.