The prognostic value of blood vessel invasion and lymphocytic infiltrates in breast carcinoma

Abstract

I spread of tumor cells are common prerequisites of the disseminated metastases that cause death in many women with breast carcinoma. How often this occurs has not been extensively investigated by quantitative methods, although cytologic methods have shown breast cancer cells in the blood in up to 17% of late cases.193 In a preliminary study of the tissue blocks from radical mastectomy specimens, blood vessel invasion was found in 42% of 91 breast carcinomas.6 T h e significantly better prognosis of the women in this study who had neither vascular invasion nor lymph node metastases has prompted analysis of a larger group of breast cancer cases drawn from hospitals in a different part of the United States.