Prognosis in node-negative breast cancer.

In a selected group of 207 breast cancer patients with tumor-free axillary nodes, clinical and pathological features were evaluated as to their relationship to long-term disease-free survival. No clinical feature was found to be prognostically useful. Of pathologic features studied, four appear to have significance. These are the volume of the primary mass, the histologic or nuclear grade, the presence of invasive lobular carcinoma in the primary mass, and possibly the presence of neoplastic cells in intramammary lymphatic vessels. When two or more of these four features are present, prognosis is less favorable than when there is only one, but the influences are not arithmetically additive.