title: Three-dimensional pathological size assessment in primary breast carcinoma.
abstract: Maximal tumor diameter (MD) is traditionally an important prognostic factor in breast cancer. It must be questioned, however, how well a one-dimensional parameter alone can represent the actual morphologic condition of a three-dimensional body. Along with the pathologically assessed MD and two perpendicular diameters (PDs) of a lesion, eccentricity (EF) and the three-dimensional parameters tumor volume (TV) and surface area (TSA) of 395 ductal invasive breast carcinomas of limited size (10-40 mm) were calculated. The dependent prognostic variable was axillary lymph node involvement (ALNI). MD, TV and TSA area were highly significant predictors of ALNI; these variables had similar levels of prediction accuracy (univariate analyses: MD: P = 0.0003, TV: P = 0.0009, TSA: P < 0.0001; multivariate analyses: MD: P = 0.0018, TV: P = 0.0109, TSA: P = 0.0009; pseudo R-squared values: MD: 0.42, TV: 0.39, TSA: 0.39). Despite certain variations in tumor shape, TV and TSA with similar MD, there is no evidence that three-dimensional pathologic measurements (TV/TSA) are more precise prognostic predictors of ALNI compared to the one-dimensional measurement alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland. ugueth@uhbs.ch
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Güth
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brenckle
authors.forename: Dorothy Jane
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schötzau
authors.forename: Carsten Thomas
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Viehl
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dieterich
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Holzgreve
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wight
authors.forename: Gad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Singer
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods; D047368:Tumor Burden