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A retrospective study on the clinical and biological prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer

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Abstract

If axillary lymph node metastases were able to be accurately predicted, dissection could be avoided in some patients with breast cancer whose axillary nodes are clinically negative. In this study, we assessed the relationships between histological axillary lymph node metastases and clinical axillary nodal status, tumor size, DNA-ploidy, c-erbB-2 expression, and the score of the argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region. We then attempted to evaluate their predictive values for axillary lymph node metastasis in 173 patients with invasive breast cancer, retrospectively. The clinical and biological variables were significantly correlated with the presence and degree of axillary lymph node metastases. A metastatic index, calculated from the clinical and biological variables, proved especially useful for predicting axillary lymph node metastases in patients whose axillary nodes were clinically negative. However, the predictive abilities were still limited and thus it was concluded that as yet, only axillary dissection can provide accurate information on axillary lymph node metastases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Operation Center, Kanazawa University Hospital, School of Medicine, Takara-machi, 13-1, 920, Kanazawa, Japan

    Masakuni Noguchi

  2. the Second Department of Surgery, Kanazawa University Hospital, School of Medicine, Takara-machi, 13-1, 920, Kanazawa, Japan

    Masakuni Noguchi, Nagayoshi Ohta, Michael Thomas, Hirohisa Kitagawa, Mitsuharu Earashi & Itsuo Miyazaki

  3. the Pathology Unit, Kanazawa University Hospital, School of Medicine, Takara-machi, 13-1, 920, Kanazawa, Japan

    Yuji Mizukami

Authors
  1. Masakuni Noguchi
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  2. Nagayoshi Ohta
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  3. Michael Thomas
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  4. Hirohisa Kitagawa
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  5. Mitsuharu Earashi
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  6. Itsuo Miyazaki
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  7. Yuji Mizukami
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Recipient of a fellowship from the Japanese-Germany Center Berlin, Germany

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Noguchi, M., Ohta, N., Thomas, M. et al. A retrospective study on the clinical and biological prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer. Surg Today 23, 573–579 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00311903

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00311903

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