Our laboratory has previously found that anti-mitogenic nuclear receptor mRNA is elevated in late stage tumours and this study was performed to scrutinize the possibility of cancer-stroma crosstalk using hormone signaling in these tissues. RNA levels in stromal tissue were examined for the estrogen alpha, estrogen beta, androgen, progesterone and glucocorticoid nuclear receptors by a semi-quantitative PCR. Significant differences in expression between the cancer stroma and control tissue were seen, analyzing for both cancer grade and estrogen receptor status. Stroma and control tissue were significantly different for the progesterone and glucocorticoid nuclear receptors (p=5.908 x 10(-7) and 2.761 x 10(-5), respectively). Glucocorticoid receptor also showed a significant increase to mRNA levels in the stroma of estrogen receptor negative tumours (p=5.85 x 10(-5)). By contrast, the estrogen receptors alpha and beta, those most closely associated with breast tissue growth, showed no significant change in mRNA (p=0.372 and 0.655, respectively). Androgen receptor mRNA also remained unaffected (p=0.174).