The number of metastatic lymph node in N3M0 breast cancer and influence on survival.

Abstract

e12563 Background: To evaluate the impact of the number of metastatic lymph node (MLN) in N3M0 breast cancer patients with a sufficient lymph node sampling. Methods: 200 patients with histopathologically confirmed N3M0 breast cancer were analyzed. Patients were divided into three groups according to the MLN; i) MLN:10-15, ii) MLN:16-20, iii) MLN:>20. Pearson Chi-square test and Kaplan-Meier test were used. Results: 25 patients had T1, 91 had T2, 69 had T3 and 15 had T4 tumor. The number of median MLN was 15 (10-48). HER-2, ER and PR status were similar. There were no significant differences in age at diagnosis, menopausal status, stage, grade and treatment among groups (p>0,05). The median follow-up period was 41.5 months. The median OS was 100, 98 and 58 months in group I, II and III, respectively (p=0.06). When we analyzed for two groups; the median OS was significantly shorter in patients with >20 MLN than patients with 10-15 MLN (98 vs. 58 months; p=0.04). We found no significant difference in DFS (p=0.52). The patients with >20 MLN had increased risk of mortality compared to patients with 10-15 MLN (adjusted-HR 1.96 (95%CI 1.1-3.5); p=0.025). Conclusions: To define the subgroups according to MLN in N3 disease may help determining the high-risk patients and making decision in clinical practice. However this finding should be supported by larger studies.