Development and validation of a prognostic nomogram based on the log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) for breast cancer

BACKGROUND To evaluate the prognostic effect of log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) and develop a nomogram for survival prediction in breast cancer patients at the time of surgery. RESULTS LODDS was an independent risk factor for cancer-related death in breast cancer (hazard ratio: 1.582, 95%CI: 1.190-2.104). Menopausal status, tumor size, pathological lymph node staging, estrogen receptor status and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 status were also included in the nomogram. The calibration plots indicated optimal agreement between the nomogram prediction and actual observation. Discrimination of nomogram was superior to the seventh edition TNM staging system [C-index: 0.745 vs. 0.721 (p = 0.03) in training cohort; 0.796 vs. 0.726 (p < 0.01) in validation cohort]. METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 2023 breast cancer patients from Jan 2002 to Dec 2008 at our center. The cohort was randomly divided into training cohort and validation cohort. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify prognostic factors, and nomogram was established using Cox regression model in training cohort. External validation of the nomogram was performed in the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS The LODDS is an independent prognostic indicator in breast cancer and the novel nomogram can provide individual prediction of cancer-specific survival and help prognostic assessment for breast cancer patients.