Prediction of late metastasis in node-negative breast cancer.

10551 Background: Prediction of late metastasis is of clinical relevance in breast cancer. However, systematic genome-wide studies to identify genes associated with increased risk of metastasis 5 or more years after surgery are scarce. Methods: We examined the natural course of disease in three previously published cohorts (Mainz, Rotterdam, Transbig) including 766 node-negative breast cancer patients with gene array data who did not receive systemic chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting. We established a Cox regression based method adjusted for multiple testing that identified genes predicting late metastasis (5 or more years after surgery). Only those genes were accepted that showed simil…