Possible histologic markers for early and late stages of breast cancer

The degree of productive fibrosis, amount of lymphoid infiltrate and nuclear grade have been studied in 492 consecutive cases of duct-infiltrating breast cancer. It has been found that highly significant relationships exist between these morphologic parameters of breast cancer: lymphoid infiltrate is directly related to nuclear anaplasia and antagonized by productive fibrosis; conversely, productive fibrosis is inversely related to nuclear anaplasia and antagonized by lymphoid infiltrate. Significant inverse relationships between productive fibrosis and lymphoid infiltrate persist in tumors that have the same nuclear grade. It is suggested that lymphoid infiltrate and productive fibrosis are suitable candidates as morphologic markers to estimate the age of breast cancer, while the nuclear grade is a suitable tool to identify subgroups with different behaviour in the NOS (not otherwise specified) category of breast cancer.