title: Clinical importance of preoperative detection of the apical lymph node metastasis in patients with breast carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  According to the revised staging system for breast cancer, the infraclavicular node status has become more important because the involvement of the apical nodes now changes the stage of the disease for all tumour sizes. In this study, we analysed the stage migration among our patients treated with mastectomy for breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  44 patients who were treated with modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer in our department during 2003 were reviewed for their clinicopathological features, including the status of the axillary lymph nodes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  11 patients (25 percent) were reclassified as stage IIIC according to the new Tumour, Node and Metastasis (TNM) classification system of American Joint Committee on Cancer that was revised in 2002. The mean age was 40.2 years and the mean tumour size was 5 cm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with breast cancer should be properly staged preoperatively for choosing appropriate individual treatment, and more accurate evaluation of the infraclavicular region for metastatic lymph nodes should be done.
authors.affiliation: Third General Surgery Department, Ankara Oncology Research and Training Hospital, Demetevler, Ankara 06200, Turkey. heguven@gmail.com
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Güven
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bulak
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Turanli
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oral
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies