Clinical classification of extent of disease in cancer of the breast.

A series of 2,039 cases of breast cancer in women under 65 years of age was used for an empirical-statistical approach to the classification of extent of disease. Comparisons were made with the staging recommendations of an American and an international committee. The uses for such classification schemes by the clinician in assessing prognosis and deciding on a treatment plan are considered. It is suggested that the same treatment plan is not necessarily appropriate for all patients falling into the same prognostic class, because there is marked variation in the clinical characteristics of patients within a class.