However, because virtually all matters relating to prognosis are determined by studying large numbers of patients, this must not be forgotten when these figures are applied to individuals. For the individual therefore, prognosis is not entirely useful, and may actually diminish hope. For the clinician on the other hand, it is very important in the decision-making process, since it indicates which types of treatment etc should be used in individual cases. A number of factors have been identified that are related to prognosis. Some of the most important of these are as listed below.
Stage considers several features of the disease and is often related to survival.
This is the most important of all the prognostic factors. The presence of cancer cells in the axillary lymph glands obviously indicates that the tumour has spread beyond the breast - it may well have gone even further than the axillary glands. As a clinical feature alone, lymph nodal status is also useful in determining whether a patient requires post-surgical chemotherapy . It is no surprise that smaller tumours have a better prognosis than larger ones. Once again, it should be stressed that each of these factors cannot be considered individually when determining actual prognosis.