Evaluation of the prognostic significance of HER family mRNA expression in high-risk early breast cancer: a Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group (HeCOG) validation study

Table 5 Cox regression multivariate analysis

Disease-free survival (N = 633)	Hazard ratio	95% CI	Wald’s p
Number of positive nodes
≥4 vs. 1–3	2.13	1.58–2.87	<0.001
Type of surgery
Mastectomy vs. breast-conserving surgery	1.49	1.07–2.06	0.017
Tumor size
>2 vs. ≤2 cm	1.31	0.94–1.82	0.11
EGFR protein expression
Positive vs. negative	1.56	1.09–2.24	0.015

Overall survival (N = 612)	Hazard ratio	95% CI	Wald’s p
Number of positive nodes
≥4 vs. 1–3	2.74	1.86–4.04	<0.001
Type of surgery
Mastectomy vs. breast-conserving surgery	1.48	0.98–2.24	0.066
Tumor size
>2 vs. ≤2 cm	1.60	1.07–2.40	0.023
Adjuvant hormonal therapy
Yes vs. no	0.70	0.48–1.04	0.074
EGFR protein expression
Positive vs. negative	1.66	1.06–2.60	0.028

Missing data, regarding adjuvant hormonal therapy, resulted in a smaller number of patients included in the multivariate analysis for overall survival compared to disease-free survival.
Significant p values are shown in bold.
CI confidence interval.

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