title: Chalkley estimates of angiogenesis in early breast cancer--relevance to prognosis.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate whether Chalkley estimates of angiogenesis add new knowledge regarding prediction of prognosis in 455 consecutive early breast carcinomas, both node-positive (52%) and node-negative (48%). Median follow-up was 101 months. Intense vascularization indicated poor disease-specific (p = 0.003) and overall (p = 0.004) survival. In node-negative patients, Chalkley counts were not associated with prognosis, whereas in node-positive patients, high Chalkley scores indicated poor disease-specific (p = 0.0006) and overall (p = 0.0008) survival. A multivariate analysis showed that positive lymph nodes, high histopathological grades, and negative oestrogen receptors were independent markers of cancer-related death. A high histopathological grade was associated with cancer-related death in node-negative patients, whereas in node-positive patients, many lymph nodes, high malignancy grade, negative oestrogen receptor, and increasing Chalkley counts (both tertiles and continuous) were independent markers of disease-specific death. Thus, in a univariate analysis it was found that high Chalkley estimates of angiogenesis indicated a poor prognosis, but high Chalkley estimates were independent prognostic markers only in node-positive patients.
authors.affiliation: Danish Cancer Society, Department of Experimental Clinical Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. bvo@oncology.dk
authors.forename: Birgitte V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Offersen
authors.forename: Flemming B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: Mette
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knoop
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Overgaard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate