Table 1.
Patient, tumour and axillary lymph node characteristics. Patients who had radiological staging (St) are compared with those that did not have radiological staging at presentation (NSt). Patients who had radiological staging and found to have distant metastasis at presentation (DMp) are compared with patients who had radiological staging and did not have distant metastasis (NDMp). Ordinal data described as number of patients with percentages in parentheses, continuous data as mean (± standard deviation, SD). Not significant (NS; p > 0.05). Significance set at p < 0.05%.
| St (n = 227) | NSt (N = 103) | p-value | DMp (n = 8) | NDMp (N = 219) | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patient characteristics: | ||||||
| Mean age (years) | 60 (± 13) | 66 (± 15) | 0.001 | 56 (± 12) | 60 (± 13) | NS |
| Female sex | 224 (99%) | 101 (98%) | NS | 8 (100%) | 216 (99%) | NS |
| Route of referral: | ||||||
| Symptomatic | 156 (68%) | 70 (68%) | NS | 6 (75%) | 150 (68%) | NS |
| Screening | 71 (32%) | 33 (32%) | NS | 2 (25%) | 69 (32%) | NS |
| Breast tumour characteristics: | ||||||
| Multifocal tumours | 61 (27%) | 19 (18%) | NS | 3 (38%) | 58 (27%) | NS |
| Invasive grade: | ||||||
| Well differentiated | 22 (10%) | 13 (12%) | NS | 0(0%) | 22 (10%) | NS |
| Moderately differentiated | 131 (58%) | 60 (58%) | NS | 3 (38%) | 128 (58%) | NS |
| Poorly differentiated | 67 (29%) | 25 (24%) | NS | 5(62%) | 62 (28%) | 0.037 |
| Associated with ductal carcinoma in situ | 169 (74.4%) | 75 (72%) | NS | 7 (87%) | 162 (74%) | NS |
| Low grade | 7 (3%) | 12 (11%) | NS | 0 (0%) | 7 (3%) | NS |
| Medium grade | 70 (30%) | 26 (25%) | NS | 1 (12%) | 69 (31%) | NS |
| High grade | 92 (40.5%) | 37 (35%) | NS | 6 (75%) | 86 (39%) | 0.043 |
| Receptor status: | ||||||
| ER/PR+, HER2– | 194 (85%) | 88 (85%) | NS | 7 (87.5%) | 187 (85%) | NS |
| ER/PR+, HER2+ | 18 (8%) | 10 (10%) | NS | 0 | 18 (8%) | NS |
| ER/PR–, HER2+ | 1 (0.4%) | 2 (2%) | NS | 0 | 1 (0.5%) | NS |
| ER/PR–, HER2– (triple negative) | 14 (6%) | 3 (3%) | NS | 1 (12.5%) | 13 (6%) | NS |
| Mean invasive tumour size (mm) | 24 (± 15) | 23 (± 14) | NS | 37.7 (± 19) | 23.9 (± 15) | 0.014 |
| Mean whole tumour size (mm) | 30 (± 18) | 27 (± 16) | NS | 42(± 16) | 29.6 (± 18) | NS |
| Lymphovascular invasion | 111 (48%) | 33 (32%) | 0.004 | 5 (62%) | 106 (48%) | NS |
| Axillary characteristics: | ||||||
| Macrometastasis | 210 (92%) | 27 (26%) | < 0.001 | 8 (100%) | 202 (92%) | NS |
| Micrometastasis | 17 (7%) | 75 (72%) | < 0.001 | 0 (0%) | 17 (8%) | NS |
| Mean number of +ve sentinel lymph node biopsies | 1.4 (± 0.8) | 1.08 (± 0.4) | < 0.001 | 1.8 (± 0.7) | 1.45 (± 0.8) | NS |
| Survival characteristics: | ||||||
| All-cause mortality | 13 (5.7%) | 13 (12.6%) | 0.031 | 3 (37%) | 10 (4.6%) | < 0.001 |
| Disease-specific mortality | 9 (3.9%) | 3 (2.9%) | NS | 3 (37%) | 6 (2.7%) | < 0.001 |
| Length of follow-up (months) | 58 (± 15) | 45 (± 18) | NS | 40 (± 20) | 48 (± 15) | NS |