The relationship between the tumour stroma percentage, clinicopathological characteristics and outcome in patients with operable ductal breast cancer

Background: The percentage of tumour stroma (TSP) has recently been reported to be a novel independent predictor of outcome in patients with a variety of common solid organ tumours. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between TSP, clinicopathological characteristics and outcome in patients with invasive ductal breast cancer, in particular node negative and triple negative disease. Methods: A total of 361 patients with primary operable invasive ductal breast cancer were included in this study. The TSP was assessed visually on the haematoxylin and eosin-stained tissue sections. With a cutoff value of 50% TSP, patients with ⩽50% stroma were classified as the low-TSP group and those with >50% stroma were classified as the high-TSP group. Results: A total of 109 (30%) patients had high TSP. Patients with high TSP were old age ( P =0.035), had more Her-2-positive tumours ( P =0.029), low-grade tumour inflammatory infiltrate ( P =0.034), low CD68+macrophage infiltrate ( P