. 2014 Oct 10;14:757. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-757

Table 1.

Characteristics of female breast cancer patients (ICD-10: C50) from Saarland diagnosed between 2000 and 2009

Characteristic	Category	2000-2004		2005-2009
		n	%	n	%
Overall		4147		4424
Age	15-49 years	754	18.2	785	17.7
	50-69 years	1973	47.6	2098	47.4
	> = 70 years	1420	34.2	1541	34.8
T	Available	3880	93.6	3951	89.3
	1^a	1671	43.1	1742	44.1
	2^a	1574	40.6	1633	41.3
	3^a	206	5.3	247	6.3
	4^a	429	11.1	329	8.3
N	Available	3483	84.0	3650	82.5
	0^a	1964	56.4	2057	56.4
	1^a	1159	33.3	1017	27.9
	2^a	273	7.8	345	9.5
	3^a	87	2.5	231	6.3
M	Available	3458	83.4	3222	72.8
	0^a	3129	90.5	2923	90.7
	1^a	329	9.5	299	9.3
Microscopic confirmation		4031	97.2	4312	97.5
Histologic grade	Available	3856	93.0	4201	95.0
	Low^a	277	7.2	304	7.2
	Intermediate^a	2273	58.9	2872	68.4
	High^a	1306	33.9	1025	24.4
Hormone receptor status	Available	3620	87.3	3720	84.1
	Positive (ER + PgR+)^a	2474	68.3	2688	72.3
	Mixed (ER + or PgR+)^a	531	14.7	451	12.1
	Negative (ER- PgR-)^a	615	17.0	581	15.6
HER2/neu expression	Available	2505	60.4	3598	81.3
	Positive^a,b	625	25.0	866	24.1
	Negative^a	1880	75.0	2732	75.9
Death certificate only notified		67	1.6	100	2.3
No follow-up available		79	1.9	48	1.1

ER: estrogen receptor; PgR: progesterone receptor; a) proportions among patients with available information; b) including 401 tumors with borderline expression; the table is based on previously published data [15].