Abstract
Twenty-one recurrent and twenty-six nonrecurrent cases of breast carcinoma were compared with respect to prognostic factors and proliferative activities. The mean number of lymph nodes involved (lymph node score) and tumor stage in recurrent and non-recurrent cases were 10.0±14.5/2.05±0.59 and 0.96±2.75/1.42±0.50, respectively. Expression of p53/c-erbB-2 was demonstrated immunohistochemically in 28.6/52.4% of recurrent cases, and in 15.4/34.6% of non-recurrent cases, respectively. PCNA indices in the two groups were 47.8±14.2 and 39.5±18.2, respectively. Fluorescent nucleolar organizer regions (FINORs) scores determined by confocal laser scanning microscope in the two groups were 3.03±0.78 and 2.32± 0.54, respectively. There were significant differences between the two groups in lymph node score, tumor stage, and FINORs score, but not in the expression of p53 or c-erbB-2 or in PCNA indices. These findings indicate that lymph node score, tumor stage, and FINORs score may be useful as prognostic factors in patients with breast carcinoma.
