The analysis of prognostic factors in stage III-B non-inflammatory breast cancer

Aims: To evaluate factors predicting disease recurrence in patients treated for stage III-B breast cancer by neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery. Methods: A retrospective study of 52 patients who responded to neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by modified radical mastectomy was carried out. The parameters studied included pre-treatment tumour size, clinical axillary status, grade, lymphatic–vascular invasion, pathological axillary status, number of metastatic lymph nodes, menopausal status and oestrogen receptor status. Results: In the univariate analysis, number of metastatic lymph nodes, primary tumour size, pathological axillary status and histological grade were statistically significant factors associated with recurrence of disease. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the number of metastatic lymph nodes (relative hazard 6.1) and primary tumour size (related hazard 2.5) were the most important independent prognostic factors for recurrence.Conclusions: These results indicate that the number of involved lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, independent of the clinical response of primary tumour, had a most significant impact on disease free survival. Additionally primary tumour size had a marked prognostic significance in spite of clinical changes in tumours following chemotherapy.