title: The relationship of microvessel counts to tumor size, estrogen-receptor status, lymph-node metastasis, and disease-free survival in patients with stage-I and stage-ii breast-cancer.
abstract: Angiogenesis in early stage breast cancer has been suggested to be an independent prognostic factor for metastasis and overall survival. We retrospectively studied 316 cases of early breast cancer with a mean follow-up period of 94 months to determine the role of angiogenesis as a prognostic factor in breast cancer utilizing a Factor VIII immuno-histochemical assay. In a univariate analysis, patients with microvessel counts in the lower 25th percentile had significantly better overall disease-free survival than patients in the upper quartiles (p<0.017). In a multivariate analysis of disease-free survival, microvessel counts did not add to prognostic information when controlling for estrogen receptor status and lymph node status, but did add prognostic information when controlling for tumor size.
authors.affiliation: MICHIGAN CANC FDN,MEYER L PRENTIS COMPREHENS CANC CTR,DETROIT,MI 48201. WAYNE STATE UNIV,SCH MED,MEYER L PRENTIS COMPREHENS CANC CTR,DIV HEMATOL ONCOL,DETROIT,MI 48201.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fregene
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khanuja
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gimotty
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kellogg
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pienta