Prognostic Factors for Patients with Breast Cancer: Traditional and New

Amy Ly; Susan C Lester; Deborah Dillon

doi:10.1016/j.path.2012.06.010

Prognostic Factors for Patients with Breast Cancer: Traditional and New

Surg Pathol Clin. 2012 Sep;5(3):775-85. doi: 10.1016/j.path.2012.06.010. Epub 2012 Jul 26.

Authors

Amy Ly¹, Susan C Lester², Deborah Dillon²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

PMID: 26838288
DOI: 10.1016/j.path.2012.06.010

Abstract

At the time of breast cancer diagnosis, multiple features of the tumor are routinely assessed to evaluate for prognostic and predictive factors. Prognostic factors provide information about the patient's likely clinical course and include tumor stage (composed of lymph node status, tumor size, and presence of chest wall involvement), tumor histologic type and grade, estrogen and progesterone receptor expression, and HER2 status. These traditional prognostic factors are reviewed with particular attention to problematic areas in classification. Several newer prognostic tests may be able to provide information beyond the traditional prognostic factors and are presented.