To determine whether the clinical covariates listed in Table 1 were potential confounders or effect modifiers, bivariate conditional logistic regressions for relapsed breast cancer, as well as levels of CRP/CAA (dichotomized at the classification tree cutpoints described above) as the dependent variable was performed with each covariate as independent variables (Tables 4 and 5, respectively). Here, CRP is linked to breast carcinoma.