Prognosis in node negative breast cancer patients: the importance of tumour diameter and mean nuclear area

In node negative breast cancer patients, tumour size and mean nuclear area (MNA) as single variables have significant impact on prognosis. Combination of the two variables gives additional information on survival, and makes it possible to predict the outcome of the disease correctly in 70% of the patients both early (82 months) and late (154 months). MNA contributes relatively more to prediction of late prognosis than tumour diameter and vice versa for early prognosis. Thus a long follow-up is needed for node negative patients, and more so for patients with favourable prognostic criteria.