VALEUR PRONOSTIQUE DE L'EXAMEN MORPHOMETRIQUE CELLULAIRE DANS LES CANCERS DU SEIN

In numerous countries, breast cancer is the most frequent tumour and the greatest cause of death in women. Despite radical surgery, in the Netherlands about 40% of all breast cancer patients die within 5 years of the initial diagnosis. Chemotherapy and adjuvant hormonal therapy can improve the prognosis to a large extent but these treatments are expensive and often have serious side effects. So in order to perfect the therapy, it is important to give the adjuvant treatment only to women with a high risk of developing metastasis. In order to do this, having good prognostic factors is essential. Several studies have shown that morphometrical cellular parameters have great prognostic value in cases of breast cancer. The most important factors are the surface of the nucleus, the number of nucleolei, the surface of the nucleolei and the number of mitoses. These parameters have a greater indicative value than ganglionic extension, the size of the tumour, the histological grade and the estrogenic receptors. The determining morphometrical factors are reproducible when a strict protocol is followed and can be obtained through simple preparation on standard histological or cytological slides. The morphometrical parameters are the best prognostic factors for breast cancer and the most reliable indications for adjuvant chemotherapy depend on them.