الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Breast cancer is an all too common universal tragedy, malign, and monstrously destructive of women in their prime of life. It is an ancient and elusive disease which has’ claimed its many victims throughout the world and from time immemorial. The normal development and function of the mammary gland depend on the co-ordinated action of several hormones; prolactin, estrogen, progesterone, adrenal corticosteroids, insulin, thyroid hormone, growth hormone, growth factors and other trophic substances (Speroff et al., 1973). The hormone dependency of human breast cancer has been known since 1896, when Beatson first observed tumour regression in premenopausal patients following oophorectomy (Beatson, 1896). Because of the difficulty in selecting patients who might benefit from endocrine manipulations, Jensen et al. (1971) observed for the first time that the presence of cytosolic estrogen receptors in a tumour biopsy specimen predicted response to endocrine therapy.