Table 1: Patients' characteristics.
|
|
Entire group n = 1727 |
Patients with relevantcourses of adjuvant chemotherapy n = 1456 |
Patients with premature chemotherapy termination |
Patients who rejected chemotherapy n = 138 |
|
Age at diagnosis*** [years] • Mean • SD |
57.82 12.166 |
56.30 11.576 |
64.21 11.914 |
67,71 11.916 |
|
Tumour size [mm] excluded prior chemotherapy • Mean • SD |
22.24 14.406 |
21.87 14.225 |
22.81 14.818 |
24.93 15.358 |
|
Number of affected lymph nodes [n] excluded prior chemotherapy • Mean • SD |
3.37 6.466 |
3.51 6.690 |
2.70 5.437 |
2.64 4.902 |
|
T-stage [n (%)] excluded prior chemotherapy T1 T2 T3 T4 |
837 (54.6) 595 (38.8) 58 (3.8) 42 (2.7) |
714 (55.9) 485 (38.0) 48 (3.8) 30 (2.3) |
65 (52.8) 51 (41.5) 3 (2.4) 4 (3.3) |
58 (43.9) 59 (44.7) 7 (5.3) 8 (6.1) |
|
N-stage* [n (%)] excluded prior chemotherapy N0 N1 N2 N3 |
637 (41.5) 520 (33.9) 191 (12.5) 186 (12.1) |
516 (40.3) 445 (34.8) 154 (12.0) 164 (12.8) |
51 (41.5) 42 (34.1) 20 (16.3) 10 (8.1) |
70 (53.0) 33 (25.0) 17 (12.9) 12 (9.1) |
|
Grading [n (%)] 1 2 3 |
45 (2.6) 844 (48.9) 837 (48.5) |
34 (2.3) 710 (48.8) 711 (48.9) |
8 (6.0) 66 (49.6) 59 (44.4) |
3 (2.2) 68 (49.3) 67 (48.6) |
|
Hormone receptor (ER or PR) [n (%)] • Negative • Positive |
388 (22.5) 1339 (77.5) |
334 (22.9) 1122 (77.1) |
25 (18.8) 108 (81.2) |
29 (21.0) 109 (79.0) |
|
HER2* [n (%)] • Negative • Positive |
1430 (82.8) 297 (17.2) |
1190 (81.7) 266 (18.3) |
115 (86.5) 18 (13.5) |
125 (90.6) 13 (9.4) |
|
Type of surgery* [n (%)] • Breast conserving • Mastectomy |
1066 (61.7) 661 (38.3) |
917 (63.0) 539 (37.0) |
72 (54.1) 61 (45.9) |
77 (55.8) 61 (44.2) |
* = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01; *** = p < 0.001
Characteristics of the entire group of patients, the subgroup of patients who completed more than 80% of adjuvant chemotherapy and the subgroup of those with early discontinuation of chemotherapy and those who refused chemotherapy are summarized in Table 1.
The differences between patients who did relevant cycles of chemotherapy, who premature stopped chemotherapy and those who disagreed are significantly different regarding age (F = 82.483; p < 0.001; ONEWAY-ANOVA), Her2-status (chi2 = 8.290; df = 2; p = 0.016), N-stage (chi2 = 12.785; df = 6; p = 0.047) and type of surgery (breast conserving vs. mastectomy) (chi2 = 6.267; df = 2; p = 0.044).