Prognostic role of the extent of peritumoral vascular invasion in operable breast cancer

10586 Background: Peritumoral vascular invasion (PVI) has been recently recognized as a significant prognostic indicator for women with operable breast cancer, yet the clinical relevance of the degree of PVI in patients with no or limited involvement of the axillary nodes is unknown. Methods: 2606 consecutive patients with pT1–3, pN0 (1586)-1a (1020), and M0, operated and counseled for medical therapy from 1/2000 to 12/2002 were prospectively classified according to the degree of PVI: absent (2017, 77.4%), focal (368, 14.1%), moderate (51, 2.0%) and extensive (170, 6.5%). The median follow-up was 3.8 years for disease-free survival (DFS) and 4.3 years for overall survival (OS). Results: Patients with extensive PVI were more likely be younger, to have larger tumors, high tumor grade, axillary positive nodes, high Ki-67 expression, and HER2/neu over-expression if compared with patients having less amount if PVI (p for trend, <.0001). Patients with diffuse PVI were prescribed significantly more frequently anthracycline containing chemotherapy and less endocrine therapy alone (p for trend, <.0001). In patients with node negative disease a statistically significant difference in DFS, risk of distant metastases and OS was observed at the multivariate analysis for diffuse PVI versus no PVI (Hazard Ratios: 2.11, 95% CI, 1.02 to 4.34, P<.0001 for DFS; 4.51, 95% CI, 1.96 to 10.4, P<.0001 for distant metastases; 3.55, 95% CI, 1.24 to 10.1, P=.02 for OS). Conclusions: Extensive peritumoral vascular invasion has a prognostic role in patients with axillary lymph node negative breast cancer. The extent of vascular invasion should be considered in the therapeutic algorithm in order to proper select targeted adjuvant treatment. No significant financial relationships to disclose.