[Prolactin and cancer of the breast. II. Prediction of the response to hormone treatment. The Minton test].

The prediction of the response to endocrine therapy in breast cancer is important. Although the estrogen receptor assay is a fundamental procedure to know hormone dependency in breast cancer, the changes produced in the serum prolactin level after administering L-dopa is a simple and reproducible method that can be used as alternative predictive test in some cases. This work shows that a 65 per 100 decrease or more in the L-dopa induced prolactin level prognosticates the existence of a hormone responsive tumor.