Review: Predictive and Prognostic Features and Their Impact on Outcome for Early-stage Breast Cancer in Mid-Western Ireland

Aims: Predictive and prognostic features have served to allow prognostication for patients with early stage breast cancer. We sought to document our own outcomes for these features to see if our cohort corresponded to published reports.
Study Design: Retrospective pilot cohort study.
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Oncology, Mid-Western Cancer Centre (MWCC), Mid-Western Regional Hospital (MWRH), Limerick, Ireland, between 1st January 2002 and 31st December 2002.
Methodology: A retrospective analysis was designed to include with early stage breast cancer seen at our institution for the aforementioned period, information was derived from the patients’ records and indices were derived from prognostic tools. Information was analyzed using descriptive statistics and χ2 or Fisher’s exact test.
Results: Seventy-seven (77) patients were found, with a median age of 52.2 years. Median overall survival of 84 months for the 10-year period of follow-up. The majority presented with moderately differentiated oestrogen receptor positive invasive ductal carcinoma and lymph node involvement (60%). 64% of patients underwent mastectomy as opposed to breast conservation. Adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy uptake was 61%, which was comparable to proportion of node positive disease. The predictive and prognostic features including axillary nodal status, tumour size, tumour grade, age at presentation and oestrogen receptor status were all significant indicators for outcome, but particularly within patients under 50 years of age.
Conclusions: This report underscores that these predictive and prognostic factors were more significant within for patients under the age of 50 years.