title: Progesterone receptor status and tumor size as possible indicators of axillary lymph node involvement in T1 carcinoma of the breast.
abstract: Disagreement persists on the necessity of axillary lymph node dissection for small T1 stage unilateral breast cancers. In this study of 120 women with T1 primary tumors who underwent extensive dissection, better definition of pathological factors that can predict axillary node metastases might have spared 88 (73.3%) who were node negative. We assessed age, tumor size, histology, grade and hormone receptor status as possible indicators of lymph node involvement. As expected, tumor size was a strong predictor of the likelihood of node involvement (p = 0.026 in univariate and p = 0.0024 in multivariate analyses). Progesterone receptor status also correlated significantly (p = 0.0008 in univariate and p = 0.017 in multivariate analyses) with axillary positivity. Tumor grade was found to be significant (p 0.018) only in univariate analysis. These findings contribute to the ongoing search for confident selection of subgroups of patients who will undergo lumpectomy but can safely be spared axillary node dissection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Tel Aviv-Sourasky Medical Center and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: I G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Ron
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kovner
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lifschitz-Mercer
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Inbar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000032:analysis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures
chemical_list: D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone