ISSN:
1534-4681
Keywords:
Breast cancer
;
Metastasis, internal mammary and axillary
;
Prognosis
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Abstract Background: The internal mammary lymph nodes (IMN) have received little attention in recent years, yet are a well-documented site of metastasis and a major prognostic factor in early-stage breast cancer. Methods/Results: Ten-year follow-up of the final 195 patients treated by extended radical mastectomy (ERM) in this practice (selected largely on the basis of medial tumor location, and comprising 15% of all patients treated from 1965 to 1978) found IMN + in 24% of all cases: 36% of AX + versus 18% of AX -patients (p=0.0023). In a multivariate analysis, the disease-free survival impact of IMN + (p=0.004) was second only to axillary node involvement (p〈0.0005), and surpassed tumor size (p=0.077). IMN + was equally frequent for tumors less than, or greater than, 2 cm (24%), and was not significantly related to patient age. Among AX - patients, there was a twofold greater risk of recurrence or death at 10 years for IMN + than for IMN -. Among T1N0 patients, 19.6% were IMN +. Conclusions: Failure to consider IMN status in the steadily enlarging cohort of T1N0 breast cancers may result in the undertreatment of a significant proportion of stage I patients. Systemic adjuvant therapy should be considered for T1N0 patients with central or medial tumors.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02303699
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