Abstract
BACKGROUND: We previously reported that the primary tumour/vessel tumour/nodal tumour (PVN) classification is significantly superior to the UICC pTNM classification and the Nottingham Prognostic Index for accurately predicting the outcome of patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast in a manner that is independent of the nodal status and the hormone receptor status. METHODS: The purpose of the present study was to compare the outcome predictive power of a modified PVN classification to that of the newly devised pathological UICC pTNM classification and the reclassified Nottingham Prognostic Index in a different group of patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (n=1042) using multivariate analyses by the Cox proportional hazard regression model. RESULTS: The modified PVN classification clearly exhibited a superior significant power, compared with the other classifications, for the accurate prediction of tumour recurrence and tumour-related death among patients with invasive ductal carcinoma in a manner that was independent of the nodal status, the hormone receptor status, and adjuvant therapy status. CONCLUSION: The modified PVN classification is a useful classification system for predicting the outcome of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.