Prediction of prognosis in axillary lymph node positive breast cancer patients: A statistical study

Abstract

This work has identified variables of importance to short- and long-term prognosis in 97 node positive breast cancer patients followed for a minimum of 98 months. The diameter of the primary tumour (⩽3 cm/>3 cm) is shown to be an important prognostic variable. Its addition to the presence/absence of tumour cells in the efferent nodal vessels and the mean nuclear area of the tumour cells gave correct prediction of the disease outcome, 60 and 98 months after the operation, in 83 and 80 per cent of the patients respectively. Although the number of tumour-bearing nodes is shown to be a strong variable, more information was gained from the tumour diameter. Histological grade was only of value for 5-year prognosis. Factors that did not add information of prognostic value in these circumstances were identified. The proposed models demonstrate the great heterogeneity within this group of patients.