High TWIST1 mRNA expression is associated with poor prognosis in lymph node-negative and estrogen receptor-positive human breast cancer and is co-expressed with stromal as well as ECM related genes

Table 3 Model of uni- and multivariate analysis for metastasis-free survival in lymph-node negative and ER-positive patients (n = 552)

Factors	No. patients		Univariate			Multivariate
		HR	95% CI	P-value	HR	95% CI	P-value
Age (years)
<40	66	1			1
41 to 55	187	0.97	0.64 to 1.49	0.90	1.05	0.68 to 1.64	0.81
56 to 70	179	0.79	0.51 to 1.23	0.29	0.81	0.40 to 1.66	0.57
>70	120	0.59	0.35 to 0.99	0.05	0.59	0.27 to 1.28	0.18
Menopausal status
Premenopausal	215	1			1
Postmenopausal	337	0.76	0.57 to 1.00	0.05	0.99	0.56 to 1.74	0.98
Tumor size
pT1, <2 cm	251	1			1
pT2, >2 to <5	276	1.12	0.84 to 1.49	0.43	1.09	0.82 to 1.46	0.34
pT3, >5 + pT4	25	1.62	0.84 to 3.11	0.15	1.92	0.99 to 3.75	0.06
Grade
Poor	257	1			1
Good/Moderate	124	0.53	0.35 to 0.79	0.002	0.56	0.37 to 0.85	0.007
Unknown	171	1.06	0.78 to 1.44	0.70	1.20	0.87 to 1.64	0.26
PGR status (mRNA)
Negative	116	1		1
Positive	436	0.67	0.49 to 0.92	0.013	0.71	0.51 to 0.99	0.04
ERBB2 status (mRNA)
Negative	475	1			1
Positive	77	1.51	1.06 to 2.15	0.02	1.39	0.97 to 2.00	0.08
					Addition to the base model
*TWIST1* mRNA level^† (Continuous)	552	1.34	1.17 to 1.53	<0.001	1.32	1.14 to 1.53	<0.001
*TWIST1* mRNA level ^†
TWIST1 quartile 1	135	1			1
TWIST1 quartile 2	125	1.02	0.65 to 1.61	0.92	0.90	0.57 to 1.43	0.67
TWIST1 quartile 3	149	1.28	0.85 to 1.94	0.24	1.09	0.71 to 1.68	0.70
TWIST1 quartile 4	143	2.06	1.39 to 3.04	<0.001	1.87	1.25 to 2.80	0.002

† TWIST1 mRNA expression level (log-transformed after normalization to the expression of three reference genes) was separately added to base multivariate model that included the factors age, menopausal status, tumor size, grade, ER, PGR, and ERBB2 mRNA expression levels, tested both as a continuous variable and in four quartiles.

ISSN: 1465-542X