NUCLEAR MORPHOMETRY IN NODE-NEGATIVE BREAST-CARCINOMA

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether nuclear morphometry can confirm or add useful information to classic clinicopathological prognosticators to identify the sub-population of breast carcinoma patients with node-neg ative (N -) disease, at high risk of disease relapse. STUDY DESIGN: On the basis of results obtained by clinicopathologic evaluation of a gr oup of patients with N - breast cancer, on a test group of 56 cases (3 2 patients disease free and 24 with relapse), we performed a morphomet ric analytical study of nuclei using the Shape Analytical Morphometry (SAM) software system; 20 nuclei for each case and 17 morphometric par ameters for each nucleus were analyzed. RESULTS: The SAM system allowe d us to quantify shape differences in nuclei in terms of contour irreg ularities and asymmetries along with evaluation of nuclear dimensions. Dimensional and analytic parameters were subjected to univariate (Stu dent's test) and multivariate (Hotelling's test) analysis. Multivariat e discriminant analysis showed that an exact forecast of disease relap se could be made in 77% of patients with N - breast cancer by using a set of six both analytic and dimensional parameters. CONCLUSION: These results confirm that nuclear pleomorphism is the result of both conto ur irregularities and shape asymmetries and that even though they shou ld be considered preliminary results, they stress the importance of qu antitative shape evaluation.