LYMPH NODE-NEGATIVE BREAST-CANCER - THE PROGNOSTIC ROLE AND TIME DEPENDENCY OF AGE, TUMOR DIAMETER AND MEAN NUCLEAR-AREA

This study of 786 node-negative breast cancer patients demonstrates th at the prognostic effect of age at operation, tumor diameter and mean nuclear area (MNA) changed over time. Identifying patients at higher r isk of dying after 5 years may be of clinical importance. These are pa tients who may have had a low metastatic tumor burden at the time of o peration and in whom cytostatic adjuvant treatment could be of value. When estimating 10-year survival, a significant loss of strength was f ound for age. A near significant loss of effect was also found for MNA , while tumor diameter was the variable best maintaining prognostic po wer during the observation period. Due to the loss of strength for MNA and age when estimating 10-year survival, the observation period was divided into two periods. When estimating 5-year survival, MNA was the strongest variable, while tumor diameter and age gave additional sign ificant information. When estimating the next 5 years, excluding patie nts who died before 5 years, only tumor diameter gave significant prog nostic information (573 cases). This again stresses the importance of tumor diameter in assessing prognosis in node-negative patients.