Flow Cytometry in the Management of Breast Cancer

Abstract

There is a pressing need for the further definition of prognostic factors capable of defining the clinical course of patients with primary breast cancer. Current data suggest that approximately 50% of women will present with node-negative (N -) disease, 35% with node-positive (N + ) disease, and 15% with metastases [37]. Of these patients, 25% with N - and 60% with N + will develop locally recurrent or metastatic disease over a 10-year follow-up period. Adjuvant chemotherapy and/or endocrine therapy following primary treatment provides potentially curative treatment for an additional 10%–25% of patients with N+ disease, and current trials suggest benefit in N- patients [35]. For patients with primary operable breast cancer, a continuing clinical dilemma related to the use of adjuvant therapy is the need to treat all patients of a given stage in order to provide effective treatment for only a small proportion of the population. Although tumor size, histologic grade, and steroid receptor status provide information suggesting recurrence risk for large groups of patients, there remains no satisfactory tool for accurate prediction of recurrence in the individual.