In all analyses, grade of Her-2/neu overexpression, patient age, recurrence-free interval, anthracycline pretreatment, number of prior chemotherapeutic regimens for metastatic disease, ER and PgR status, Karnofsky's performance index, presence or absence of visceral metastases, number of organs involved by metastatic disease, type of treatment (single-agent trastuzumab vs combination with chemotherapy) and baseline serum Her-2/neu ECD levels were entered as variates. Here, PGR is linked to metastatic neoplasm.