Table 1.
Patient demographics and characteristics
| Characteristics | Present study population (n = 99) |
Relapse free at 3 years (n = 356) |
Differences between the groups (P values) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age at diagnosis (years) | |||
| Mean (median) | 58 (56) | 57 (56) | |
| Range | 34–78 | 28–85 | 0.380 |
| Menopause status, n (%) | |||
| Pre (< 55 years) | 40 (40%) | 151 (42%) | |
| Post (≥ 55 years) | 59 (60%) | 205 (58%) | 0.710 |
| Histology, n (%) | |||
| IDC | 74 (75%) | 251 (76%) | 0.109 |
| ILC | 24 (24%) | 69 (19%) | |
| Other infiltrating cancer | 1 (1%) | 16 (5%) | |
| Tumor size, n (%) | |||
| pT1 | 50 (51%) | 253 (71%) | < 0.001* |
| pT2 | 49 (49%) | 87 (25%) | |
| pT3 | – | 12 (3%) | |
| pT4 | – | 0 (0%) | |
| pTx | – | 3 (1%) | |
| Tumor grade, n (%) | |||
| G1 | 18 (18%) | 110 (31%) | 0.009 |
| G2 | 67 (68%) | 184 (52%) | |
| G3 | 12 (12%) | 56 (15%) | |
| Not reported | 2 (2%) | 6 (2%) | |
| Node status, n (%) | |||
| Positive | 57 (58%) | 93 (71%) | < 0.001 |
| Negative | 41 (41%) | 257 (27%) | |
| Not reported | 1 (1%) | 6 (2%) | |
| HER2/neu status, n (%) | |||
| HER2+ | 7 (7%) | 36 (10%) | 0.193 |
| HER2– | 89 (90%) | 298 (84%) | |
| Unknown | 3 (3%) | 22 (6%) |
Comparison of the demographic and clinical characteristics between the patients in the present study population and 356 relapse-free patients from the original population [17]
The present study population comprises more patients with pT2 tumors, higher grade, and node-positive status due to treatment selection
*The present study population only included operable breast cancer patients; therefore p value of tumor size comparison is between pT1 and pT2 populations
IDC invasive ductal carcinoma, ILC invasive lobular carcinoma, pT pathological tumor size