Predictive and Prognostic Factors of Breast Carcinoma

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Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women with a significantly reduced mortality rate in recent years due to its early diagnosis and the advanced methods of treatment available; however, it is still the second cause of death from cancer in women in Europe and Western countries, preceded only by lung cancer. In fact, the age of breast cancer incidence has reduced in the last few years from the fourth decade of life to the second and third decades. Various predictive and prognostic factors affect the course of the disease. Predictive factors are distinguished from prognostic factors in that the latter can be measured and is associated with the nature of the disease while the former determines the response to treatments. Some factors are both prognostic and predictive, including ER status, PR status, p53 mutation status, and Her2neu over-expression. Prognostic factors include the type of tumor, number of involved lymph nodes at the time of tumor diagnosis, size of the tumor, tumor grade, ki67 status and the patient's age. Numerous studies have been conducted on these prognostic factors and their relationship with one another; however, the studies have reported disparate results . The present study was therefore conducted to analyze cases of breast cancer in a university medical center in an effort to find a logical relationship between the type of tumor and these predictive and prognostic factors and perhaps even find a better diagnostic method that increases the patients’ longevity and improves their quality of life.

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