Twenty‐five years of follow‐up in patients with operable breast carcinoma

Abstract

BACKGROUNDSome investigators have suggested a decreased prognostic value for conventional prognostic factors over time in patients with breast carcinoma. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of prognostic factors on the risk of death in patients with breast carcinoma over a long follow‐up.METHODSThe authors assessed clinicopathologic prognostic factors in patients with early‐stage breast carcinoma over a follow‐up > 25 years and analyzed the variation of their effect on death in consecutive 5‐year follow‐up intervals. The study included 2410 women who primarily underwent complete surgical resection. Time‐dependent variables were analyzed by using different multivariate models.RESULTSFour factors were related strongly to the risk of death in the first 5 years: tumor size, histologic grade, the number of involved axillary lymph nodes, and age at diagnosis. After 10–15 years of follow‐up, only age at diagnosis was related to the risk of death. The effect of powerful prognostic factors, except age at diagnosis, on the risk of death was time limited, and no effects or very small effects were detectable after 10 years of follow‐up.CONCLUSIONSConventional and widely accepted prognostic factors may explain a significant portion of early deaths among patients with early‐stage breast carcinoma, but they were of limited value to explain late mortality, that also may be influenced by late events, such as new primary malignancies and treatment complications. Cancer 2006. © 2006 American Cancer Society.

Outcomes for patients who are diagnosed with breast and endometrial cancer

“…However, this effect was not observed in the analyses of histological grades and breast cancer-specific survival. Although the histological grade of breast tumors has been shown to be correlated with a poorer prognosis in previous studies (12–14), the present study did not observe any significant effect on the risk of mortality from breast cancer based on the increasing histological grade. There was an unexpected effect of the breast tumor histological grade on the risk of mortality from endometrial cancer.…”

Evaluation of prognostic factors in stage IIA breast tumors and their correlation with mortality risk

“…According to the literature, one important factor in determining long-term survival is age 18,19. Younger patients (30-35 years) have a worse survival rate as compared with patients aged 70 or older.…”

Tumour 18 F-FDG Uptake on preoperative PET/CT may predict axillary lymph node metastasis in ER-positive/HER2-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer subtypes

“…The axillary lymph node (ALN) status is the most powerful prognostic factor and an important guide for treatment planning in patients with breast cancer [1,2]. Although lymphovascular invasion, tumour size, and histological grade are well known for their association with ALN involvement [3][4][5], these established prognosticators are not always sufficient to justify omission of axillary dissection in patients at low risk of ALN metastasis.…”