Routinely available indicators of prognosis in breast cancer

Diagnosis coupled with prognostication is the challenge for and charge of t he pathologist. In this time of rapidly developing basic knowledge and incr easing sophistication in the evaluation of prognostic information, there ha s also been an important re-evaluation of the validity, reliability, and re levance of classic histopathology. Also, the precision of and criteria for evaluating tumor size and status of regional lymph nodes is under study. Ou r emphasis in this review is tissue pathology and further, its practical re levance to patient management. Histopathology remains the basis of diagnosi s universally; the addition of other elements will increase precision of pr ediction, particularly of responsiveness to individual therapies. Histologi c grade may be integrated to substratify high and low stage cases into prog nostically more useful subsets. Histologic types also interact with size an d nodal status to predict patients with excellent prognosis. Further refine ment of these parameters may occur by analysis within clinical, pathologic, or therapeutic subsets.