Table 3.

Association between stromal histological characteristics and RANK in spindle shape stromal cells, not associated to the vasculature, expression in a cohort of 155 early breast cancer patients. Fisher’s exact test was used for the association between variables

Characteristics of the breast tumor stroma		RANK
		Total	High expression	$p$
% Intratumoral Stroma	$⩽50$	88	18	0.0290
	$>$ 50	67	25
% Fibroblast	non-large amount	140	38	0.5620
	Large amount	15	5
Collagen deposition	non-large amount	70	16	0.2800
	Large amount	85	27
Lymphatic infiltration	non-large amount	135	35	0.1920
	Large amount	20	8
Desmoplasia	non-large amount	60	10	0.0850
	Large amount	95	27
Mixoid changes	non-large amount	59	13	0.3520
	Large amount	96	30
Blood vascularization	non-large amount	109	1	0.0130
	Large amount	46	18
Lymphatic vascularization	non-large amount	111	1	0.0006
	Large amount	44	18
Total		155	43

^*p-value 0.0500.