[Breast cancer: prognostic factors. Apropos of 1000 conservative treatments].

Prognosis was analyzed as a function of histologic grade, axillary gland spread and hormonal receptors in a consecutive series of 1000 patients with breast cancer (stages I and II) treated by conservative tumorectomy and axillary curettage, combined with radiotherapy, and followed up for between 3 and 12 years. The three factors analyzed are of major importance in that they constituted a veritable tumoral identity card. Grade I tumors, the absence of glandular spread and the presence of hormonal receptors are correlated with cancer of good prognosis, whereas grade III tumors, major axillary spread and absence of hormonal receptors are related to a poor prognosis. Their interactions are studied by comparing associations of good and poor prognostic factors, allowing determination of populations at low and high risk of therapeutic failure.