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This study is looking at the natural history of her-2/neu positive tumors less than 1cm in size with no lymph node involvement. In other words, what happens to these patients when no chemo is given. So, the statistics shown are for patients only treated with lumpectomy/xrt or mastectomy. No chemo. no herceptin.
I still think the numbers seem rather crappy. I think the data is likely questionable. First of all, going back to 1973 and reviewing charts is difficult. Also, there were likely many patients who were understaged. There were no MRI's or PET scans back then to assess the axillary nodes. I can pretty much guarantee you that many, if not all, T1a tumor patients did not have an axillary nodal dissection and sentinal biospies weren't yet being performed. So, all they had to base the nodal status on was physical exam. Well, that's just not very accurate. I wonder if some of the women were really N1 when they were called N0. We will never know.
Prospective studies are much more reliable. I like the Cleveland Clinic study much better!
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