title: Absence of prognostic features in the cytology of effusions due to mammary cancer.
abstract: Malignant effusions from 150 patients with breast carcinoma were examined to determine whether cytologic features could be related to prognosis. Four features were studied: tumor cellularity and frequency of mitoses in tumor cells as an indication of their proliferative activity, leukocytic (lymphocytic) background as a possible measure of host reaction and tumor cell cluster formation as an indication of the tumor growth pattern. The clinical outlook was poor in all the patients with effusions due to breast cancer, and we found no good relationship between any of these four cytologic features and prognosis.
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005122:Exudates and Transudates / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes; D008940:Mitotic Index; D011379:Prognosis