Morphometric grading of breast cancer: thresholds for tubular differentiation

We evaluated the degree of tubular differentiation in 172 samples of invasive ductal breast cancer in order to determine numerical thresholds for histological breast cancer grading. The tubular differentiation in each sample was defined as the fraction of fields showing tubular differentiation (FTD). The analysis was based on Kaplan-Meier curves reflecting survival and recurrence of disease, univariate and multivariate analyses of Cox's regression, and maximum efficiencies of ROC analysis. The minimum P-value cut-off for FTD was determined at 59%. The practical interpretation is that tubular differentiation in the neoplasm observed in at least 60% of microscopical fields in the tumour area indicates favourable prognosis of disease. The relative risks for breast cancer death for patients with FTD below 59% as compared with those with FTD above 59% were 6.7--and 6.3-fold (univariate and multivariate analyses respectively). Another threshold could be determined at FTD 23%, although this threshold was associated with clearly lower statistical significancies. The paper introduces two possible solutions for application of the thresholds to the morphometric breast cancer grading system. The study also emphasizes the clinical relevance of the evaluation of tubular differentiation in breast cancer. The consistent morphometric evaluation method was vital in allowing the full weight of the biological significance of tubular differentiation to emerge.