Although one would expect young age to be a favourable factor for survival, multivariate analysis adjusting for age continued to show a beneficial outcome of first generation non-Western immigrants.
These results were supported by Kaplan Meier analysis (Table 1), indicating ER positivity to be a favourable factor (P=0.0032), with increased tumour size (P=0.007), advanced grade (P=0.0013), treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy (P=0.0012) and spread to lymph nodes (P<0.00005) to correlate with bad prognosis.
Positive PgR status (HR = 0.76; p =.021) was a favourable factor as was positive ER status (HR = 0.76; p =.083), but did not reach statistical significance.
Most previous studies also recognized an adverse correlation of MAGE A family antigens either to the survival or indirectly to established prognostic factors [ 4, 40], with a unique report of MAGE-A4 to be a favourable prognostic factor [ 33].
Moreover, an MDC-increased gene expression in tumour tissue turned out to be a favourable prognostic factor (Nakajima et al, 2006) and its concentration levels strongly correlates with the frequency of FOXP3-positive cells (Mizukami et al, 2008).
Furthermore, infiltration of HPV-positive HNSCC by PD-1-expressing T lymphocytes has been shown to be a favourable prognostic factor (Badoual et al, 2013).
Besides, eradication of tumour cells in the mediastinal nodes has also been reported to be a favourable prognostic factor (Choi et al, 1997; Albain et al, 2005).
Tumour-infiltrating CD8+ T cells were also found to be a favourable prognostic factor in patients with MM who received induction chemotherapy followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy (Anraku et al, 2008).
In primary breast tumours, CD44v6 expression correlates with tumour size, nodal involvement and 5-year survival [ 54] and, whilst this study did not explore CD44s expression, similar studies comparing CD44s and v6 expression in invasive breast carcinoma have reported no correlation between CD44v6 and clinical outcome whereas CD44s appears to be a favourable prognostic factor [ 55].
The convenience of being able to take online tests anywhere was also a favourable factor for students (Baleni, 2015).
These results indicate that ETV1 is a poor prognostic factor, and COP1 is a favourable prognostic factor for TNBCs.
