No abstract

Summary A prospective study of 232 patients with primary invasive breast cancer (UICC Stages I, II and III) and histologically confirmed axillary node status was carried out to assess the prognostic significance of several readily available clinical and pathological characteristics. In addition to the recognised utility of tumour size and axillary lymph node status, the presence or absence of cohesive clumps of malignant cells in peritumoral vascular spaces (both lymphatic and blood vessels) was found to be prognostically important.The overall survival rate in breast cancer has not

Summary We studied the clinical, demographic and survival characteristics of more than 5,000 women registered with either squamous or adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix in South Thames Cancer Registry over the period 1968-81. There were similarities with respect to social class, smoking habit, oestrogen/oral contraceptive use and time trends in incidence but differences between the two cancers were found with respect to age distribution, parity, method of detection and survival. Some of the data are of limited value, having been obtained only from case notes, so the results need some caution in their interpretation. However the results are broadly consistent with those of studies performed in other countries on smaller samples. A methodological issue is also raised, viz. the appropriateness of a disease with well-known characteristics as a comparison group. From our results the likely size of various associations can be judged and used in the design of future studies to clarify the epidemiology of cervical adenocarcinoma.

Study objective-The aim was to investigate whether the survival of women with cancer of the uterine cervix is associated with their marital status and social class.

This study examined the relationship between hospital admissions for patients with diabetes mellitus and residence in an area of social deprivation. Admissions of patients with diabetes mellitus were identified during a 5-year period between 1987 and 1992 using the district patient information service. All persons admitted were assigned to an electoral ward on the basis of their postcode. Age standardized admission rates were compared to the Townsend Deprivation Score for each electoral ward. A positive correlation was found between age standardized admission rate and Townsend Score (r = 0.76, p < 0.001). We believe this has significance for planning health care resources.