1094 Background: Hormone Receptor Status (HS) in breast cancer (BC) is a universally accepted biomarker. ASCO/CAP 2010 guidelines set the threshold of Estrogen and Progesterone Receptor positivity to 1 %. BC with 1-9% HS expression remains controversial with recent data disputing these guidelines. The objective of this retrospective study was to validate these guidelines at Georgia Cancer Center (GCC) with high percentage of black race. Methods: All female patients with invasive BC diagnosed between 2005-2010 at GCC (11y follow-up) were chart reviewed. We used Cox proportional hazards model to explore survival among three HS groups ( < 1%, 1-9%, ≥10%) adjusting for standard prognostic factors. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were also reported. 1-9 %, and ≥10% groups were further explored using same method to test survival difference with or without hormone therapy (HT). Fischer’s Exact test was used to evaluate response to HT in these groups. Results: 400 patients (all stages) with mean age of 59, were 24.75% HS < 1%, 17.5% HS1-9%, and 57.75% HS≥10%. Race was 43.75% Black, and 54% White. Disease stages were 84.4% early (I-IIIA) and 15.56% late (IIIB-IV). Grades were 51.42% low (1-2) and 48.58% high (3). The 2 groups (1-9%, ≥10%) received chemotherapy (42.86%, 39.83%), and HT (58.57%, 80.52%) respectively while 70.71% of < 1% HS group had chemotherapy. Mortality in HS < 1% was significantly higher than HS ≥10% (HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.07-3.02), while mortality between HS 1-9% and HS ≥10% was not different (HR 1.05, 95% CI 0.48-2.30). Treated (HT) subjects had lower mortality than untreated subjects in the 1-9% group (HR 0.10, 95% CI 0.01-0.85). 100% of HT group had no evidence of tumor at last follow up compared to 87.5% in non-treatment group (p = 0.048). There was no significant difference in mortality between treated (HT) 1-9% and ≥10% groups. Conclusions: Hormone receptor expression as low as 1-9% was found to be equi-prognostic to ≥10% expression. It also predicted response to hormonal therapy. Whether other factors as lympho-vascular invasion, grade, and other parameters change the behavior of the 1-9% HS group remain to be explored.