title: Mast cells in breast cancer.
abstract: The number of stromal mast cells was counted in 187 breast carcinomas. The number of mast cells/mm2 of tumour stroma was studied in relation to clinical, histological and quantitative prognostic factors and survival. A high number of mast cells in tumour stroma was significantly related to low S phase fraction (p = 0.001), DNA diploidy (p = 0.028), high proportion of intraductal growth (p = 0.003) and high degree of tubule formation (p = 0.044). Large tumours showed a lower number of mast cells in stroma (p = 0.08). A non-significant trend was found between mast cell count and axillary lymph node status, sex steroid receptor content, histological type, morphometric nuclear factors and mitotic frequency. In survival analysis a high mast cell count (over 10 g per mm2 of tumour stroma) was related to a favorable prognosis (p = 0.04). The present results confirm previous results in that changes in mast cell count are related to histopathological characteristics and clinical outcome in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aaltomaa
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lipponen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Papinaho
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Kosma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis