title: Quantitative study of ductal breast cancer progression. A progression index (P.I.) for premalignant lesions and in situ carcinoma.
abstract: The diagnostic subjective assessment of ductal premalignant proliferative lesions and in situ carcinoma of the breast produces unsatisfactory results. Since the phenotypical cell changes in tumour progression toward infiltrating cancer constitute a continuum, a grading on a continuous scale of values produces a more reliable and reproducible characterization. The diagnostic assessment for any individual patient may be expressed by a progression index (P.I.): its numerical values are based on the cellular changes measured in the individual cases. In this study, the progression index is based on two morphometric features, nuclear size and nucleolar area. In addition, the method presented may produce a ratio, stating the relative likelihood that each case represents one of the conventional diagnostic categories. Such a likelihood ratio may be obtained from the bivariate distribution of nuclear size and nucleolar area for the conventional diagnostic categories.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Anatomia Patologica, Universita' di Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Mariuzzi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mariuzzi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mombello
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santinelli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valli
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rahal
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Bartels
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D018715:Microscopy, Video; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis