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. 2008 May 29;10(3):R48. doi: 10.1186/bcr2101

Table 3.

Distribution of clinicopathological variables within groups of patients as revealed by hierarchical clustering

Clusters of patientsa
A B C
I II III IV V
Distribution Count 27 23 24 22 9
Age Mean 64.3 58.3 59.6 55.7 55.4
 p5 = 0.235, p3 = 0.212, N = 105 Median 64 55 60 57 49
Tumor type Lobular and mixed ductal/lobular 12 5 5 4 1
 p5 = 0.040*, p3 = 0.021*, N = 105 Ductal not otherwise specified 15 17 16 14 4
Mucinous, papillary 0 0 2 2 1
Medullary, spindle cell 0 1 1 2 3
Lymph node metastases Absent 10 8 6 12 5
 p5 = 0.240, p3 = 0.065, N = 105 Present 17 15 18 10 4
Maximal tumor diameter <20 mm (pT1) 6 11 12 13 0
 p5 = 0.001*, p3 = 0.408, N = 105 > 20 mm (pT2, pT3) 21 12 12 9 9
Tumor grade Grade 1 8 5 7 7 2
 p5 = 0.138, p3 = 0.199, N = 105 Grade 2 14 7 10 5 1
Grade 3 5 11 7 10 6
Nuclear grade Grade 1 6 2 2 6 2
 p5 < 0.001**, p3 < 0.001**, N = 105 Grade 2 17 15 20 9 0
Grade 3 4 6 2 7 7
Estrogen receptor alpha Positive 25 18 24 15 3
 p5 < 0.001**, p3 < 0.001**, N = 105 Negative 2 5 0 7 6
Estrogen receptor beta Positive 20 11 13 8 3
 p5 = 0.078, p3 = 0.030*, N = 99 Negative 7 8 10 13 6
Progesterone receptor Positive 23 16 24 14 4
 p5 < 0.001**, p3 < 0.001**, N = 105 Negative 4 7 0 8 5
HER2 amplification by fluorescence in situ hybridization Absent 25 16 22 19 9
 p5 = 0.071, p3 = 0.398, N = 105 Present 2 7 2 3 0
HER2/neu by immunohistochemistry 3+ 2 5 2 3 0
 p5 = 0.008*, p3 = 0. 046*, N = 105 2+ 0 3 3 2 0
1+ 10 10 7 2 1
0 15 5 12 15 8
Cytokeratin 5/6 or cytokeratin 14 Positive 2 3 0 4 3
 p5 = 0.035*, p3 = 0.010*, N = 99 Negative 24 18 23 16 6
Triple-negative phenotype Yes 0 1 0 5 6
 p5 < 0.001**, p3 < 0.001**, N = 105 No 27 22 24 17 3
Cyclin D1 amplification by fluorescence in situ hybridization Absent 22 21 18 17 9
 p5 = 0.354, p3 = 0.875, N = 102 Present 5 2 4 4 0
Cyclin D1 by immunohistochemistry Positive 26 17 21 18 4
 p5 = 0.001**, p3 = 0.111, N = 101 Negative 0 5 2 3 5
Mucin 1 2+ 17 12 21 9 1
 p5 = 0.001**, p3 < 0.001**, N = 102 1+ 9 10 2 7 7
0 1 0 0 5 1
Gross cystic fluid protein Positive 10 10 13 9 2
 p5 = 0.572, p3 = 0.440, N = 98 Negative 15 13 10 10 6

p5 values, results of statistical testing within five groups of patients and are rather informative because of the small number of patients in each group; p3 values, result of statistical testing within three groups of patients. *P values significant at the 5% significance level. **P values significant at a significance level adjusted by Bonferroni correction (0.05/17 = 0.0029). For some parameters evaluated in tissue microarrays, information was not available in all patients. aA to C, three clusters; I to V, five clusters.