Clinical characteristics and overall survival prognostic nomogram for invasive cribriform carcinoma of breast: a SEER population-based analysis

BACKGROUND: The prognositc factors in patient with invasive cribriform carcinoma (ICC) of breast is still remain controversal. The study aims to establish a nomogram to predict the survival outcomes in patients with ICC based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. METHODS: We retrieved SEER database for clinical data about patients including ICC and infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) from 2004 to 2015. Kaplan-Meier survival was used to compare the difference survival outcomes between ICC and IDC. ICC patients were randomly allocated to training cohort and validation cohort. A nomogram was built to predict individual patient’s 3-year and 5-year survival status for ICC. The established TMN model and the newly established nomogram was further evaluated by the concordance index (C-index) and the decision curve analysis (DCA). RESULTS: Comparing the baseline clinical data between IDC and ICC, a significant of smaller tumor mass, less infiltrated lymph nodes, lower metastases rate, better tumor differentiation degree, higher proportion of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) positive and lower rate of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was found in ICC. Age at diagnosis, marriage status, tumor location, T stage, M stage, ER status, surgery were independent significant prognostic factors for the overall survival (OS). A significantly higher C-index was found in nomogram compared with established TNM model in validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of ICC patients is better than that of IDC patients. The nomogram is recommended for future patient with ICC to survival analysis. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-07895-5.