title: S-phase fractions of breast cancer predict overall and post-relapse survival.
abstract: We studied the correlation of S-phase fraction (SPF) with clinical outcome in 127 pre- or perimenopausal patients with breast cancers treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy from October 1986 to June 1990. When the patients were analysed using the median value of the SPF as a threshold, there was a small but non-significant difference in favour of low SPF tumours for metastasis-free survival. SPF was the only parameter predicting overall survival in multivariate analysis (P < 0.002) which included T, N, histopathological grade and steroid hormone receptors. The results of metastasis-free survival contrasted with previous analyses with shorter follow-up, so we tested the time-dependent influence of SPF on prognosis. It was thus shown that SPF significantly predicts metastasis-free survival only during the first 30 months, whereas the relative risk of cancer-related death according to SPF remains significant for 56 months. In order to find an explanation for the difference in predictivity between metastasis-free survival and overall survival, we studied the post-relapse survival. Significantly shorter survival (median 12 months) was associated with tumours presenting pre-treatment high SPF values, compared to the low SPF group for which 60% of the patients were still alive after 30 months of metastasis phase (P = 0.002). Our current results, in a homogeneous series with a median follow-up of over 5 years, emphasise the importance of proliferation-related parameters for breast cancer management.
authors.affiliation: UMR 147 CNRS, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Remvikos
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mosseri
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Asselain
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fourquet
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pouillart
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Magdelénat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D016196:S Phase; D015996:Survival Rate