Breast cancer in young women: clinical, histological and morphometric prognostic factors

Clinical features, 8 histological features, 7 nuclear morphometric variables and 2 mitotic indices were entered in a univariate and in a multivariate survival analysis to assess their independent predictive value in 56 breast cancer patients under the age of 40 years who were followed up for over 10 years. The most important predictor of recurrence-free survival (RFS) in univariate analysis was the SD of nuclear perimetry (p = 0.003) followed by SD of nuclear area (p = 0.006), M/V index (p = 0.036), pN status (p = 0.046), nuclear area of 10 largest nuclei (p = 0.07), nuclear perimetry (p = 0.09) and nuclear area (p = 0.09) in that order. In pN(-) patients, SDPE (p = 0.04), SDNA (p = 0.07) and NA10 (p = 0.07) predicted RFS. In pN+ patients the most important predictor of RFS was the SDNA (p = 0.001) followed by NA 10 (p = 0.003), SDPE (p = 0.009), PE (p = 0.01), NA (p = 0.01) and Dmin (shortest diameter) (p = 0.04). In multivariate analysis the pN-status independently predicted RFS. Tumour size (p = 0.001), pN status (p = 0.002) and M/V-index (p = 0.079) were related to BS (breast cancer survival). In pN-patients, NA 10 (p = 0.097) predicted BS, whereas in pN+ tumours tumour size (p = 0.06) was the most important predictor of BS. In a multivariate analysis, tumour size (p = 0.02) and pN-status (p = 0.016) were independent predictors of BS.