Metastasis of axillary node in clinical T1 -T2 N0M0 breast cancer patients

Abstract

Objective To study the metastasis of lymph node of breast cancer patients in clinical T1-T2 N0 M0 and its clinical significance in (sentinel lymph node biopsy, SLNB). Methods A total of 276 pa-tients of breast cancer were enrolled in the study (T1 N0M0 cases =115 ; T2N0M0 cases = 161 ). The metas-tasis and distribution of axillary node by virtue of the location of primary tumor, ages and pathologic status were analyzed. Results The metastasis rate of axillary node in T1 N0M0 patients was less than T2 N0 M0 (P =0.027), while that in the central and lower outer quadrant's was higher than in other' s parts(P =0.004).When the tumor located in outer quadrant, the axillary node metastasis rate of Berg I was highest in the cen-tral, outer and inner quadrant(P =0.000). But the metastasis rate of Berg Ⅲ was lowest in the three quad-rants (P = 0. 000). For the pathologic status, the metastasis rate of invasive carcinoma-not otherwise speci-fied(NOS) was higher than early breast carcinoma and other pathologic categories (P =0.000). More than 2 groups axillary node metastasis was found in 6 of 9 patients with carcinoma simplex. The 90 cases with axilla-ry node metastasis were analyzed by age. Axillary node was easier for metastasis in those cases aged above 50years than those below 50 years(68.9% vs 31.1% )(P =0. 000). Two eases with skip metastasis were in T2 No Mo (invasive ductal carcinoma disease = 1, carcinoma simplex disease = 1 ). Conclusion The distri-bution of the metastasis of lymph node in clinical T1 ,T2 N0M0 breast cancer plays an important role in SLNB and formulating reasonable treatment protocols. Key words: breast cancer; lymph node; axillary fossa; tumor metastasis