CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES ASSOCIATED WITH LONG-TERM SURVIVAL IN NODE-NEGATIVE BREAST-CANCER PATIENTS

This study was undertaken to assess blood vessel invasion (BVI) and ot her histologic features to determine the best method of histologic pro gnosis in node-negative breast cancer patients. The prognostic signifi cance of the clinicopathological findings was evaluated in 70 patients with node-negative breast cancer among 135 patients operated on betwe en 1971 and 1981. The prognostic factors investigated included BVI, pe ritumor lymphatic invasion, clinical tumor size, nuclear grade, histol ogical grade, mitotic grade, and tumor necrosis. BVI was detected by f actor VIII-related antigen and elastica van Gieson staining. BVI-negat ive patients had a 20-year cumulative survival of 93.7%, versus 74.7% for BVI-positive patients (P = 0.0294). The clinical tumor size also c orrelated well with prognosis (P < 0.0001). However, the other histolo gic features did not correlate with a poor prognosis. Moreover, we ret rospectively examined the effect of postoperative chemotherapy for pat ients with BVI and T3, and the prognosis of those given chemotherapy s eemed to be better than that of those who were not. Tumors measuring m ore than 51 mm and BVI may thus represent adverse prognostic factors i n node-negative breast cancer patients.