Abstract
One-hundred and twenty-one patients with invasive breast cancer were subjected to studies of relationship between DNA ploidy status and the other variable prognostic factors, especially regional lymph node metastases, and their values in estimating the prognosis of breast cancer. Forty percent of the cases were diploid and 60%, aneuploid. A significant higher incidence of aneuploidy was found in patients with more than 4 positive axillary lymph nodes, positive internal mammary lymph nodes or clinical stage 3. In the univariate study, overall 10-year survival and disease-free survival were significantly correlated with the axillary and internal mammary lymph node metastases, tumor size, and clinical stage. The disease-free survival rates for the diploid group tended to be somewhat higher than those for the aneuploid group in patients without axillary lymph node metastases. In the multivariate analysis, however, only axillary lymph node metastasis was significantly correlated with the overall survival and disease-free survival. Thus, the DNA ploidy status was closely correlated with the axillary and internal mammary lymph node metastases, but it may be a useful prognostic factor in patients with node-negative breast cancer.
