| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Backgrounds</p> <p>Prognostic factors are defined as biological or clinical measurement associated with overall survival and/or disease-free survival. Previous studies have shown that patients with estrogen receptor (ER) positive cancers have a better prognosis than patients whose cancers do not have these receptors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study investigated the assessment of variables in defining prognosis of 742 breast cancer women with pathological stage (pTNM) I-III diagnosed between 1980 and 2005 at the Kyoto University Hospital in Japan, by age, clinical stage (cTNM), pTNM, the numbers of positive lymph nodes (pN), and ER status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Multivariate analysis demonstrated that pTNM and ER status were the independent prognostic factors for overall survival, and that pTNM and pN were the independent prognostic factors for disease-free survival. For the 0- to 2-year interval, the hazard of recurrence was higher for the ER-negative patients than the ER-positive patients, and beyond 3 years the hazard was higher for ER-positive patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present study confirmed the previous reports which showed favorable prognosis of the patients with lesser pTNM or positive ER status. A reversal of recurrence hazard rate between ER positive and negative breast cancer patients beyond 3 years after operation was detected. The fact may indicate the importance of long term adjuvant hormone therapy for ER positive cancer patients.</p>
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