The Relative Significance of Prognostic Factors in Breast Carcinoma

A retrospective detailed study of 272 cases of breast carcinoma treated by radical mastectomy was published by Hamlin (1968). An extended analysis of the material for 258 of these cases is now reported. Data for 21 prognostic factors from 258 patients have been subjected to multiple regression analysis to determine the independent effect and thus the relative importance of each factor. The findings confirm previous single factor analyses and demonstrate that nine of the factors are independently associated with survival. Mathematical manipulation of the information obtained in this analysis allowed a risk score to be allotted to each patient. Grouping of patients by the prediction scores is found in this series to be more closely related to survival than is clinical staging of the same patients.