title: Validation of clinical prediction rules for a low probability of nonsentinel and extensive lymph node involvement in breast cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Two recently developed clinical prediction rules aim to anticipate the lack of nonsentinel lymph node metastases and the involvement of less than 4 lymph nodes in breast cancer patients with positive sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs).
  
  
  METHODS
  The University of Louisville Breast SLN Study clinical prediction rules were validated on an independent set of SLN-positive patients with tumors < or = 15 mm.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data on 475 and 473 patients, respectively, were used for the validation. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were similar to the originals for both predictive tools (.70 and .76). The lowest score of 1 identified 5 of 7 patients with disease limited to the SLNs and 161 of 165 as having less than 4 involved lymph nodes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A subset of patients with SLN-only involvement and less than 4 metastatic lymph nodes can probably be identified by means of the Louisville clinical prediction rules, but prediction of the lack of non-SLN metastasis seems less reliable.
authors: Department of Surgical Pathology, Bács-Kiskun County Teaching Hospital, Nyiri út 38, H-6000 Kecskemét, Hungary. cserni@freemail.hu
authors: Gábor
authors: G
authors: Cserni
authors: Simonetta
authors: S
authors: Bianchi
authors: Vania
authors: V
authors: Vezzosi
authors: Riccardo
authors: R
authors: Arisio
authors: Johannes L
authors: JL
authors: Peterse
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Sapino
authors: Isabella
authors: I
authors: Castellano
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Drijkoningen
authors: Janina
authors: J
authors: Kulka
authors: Vincenzo
authors: V
authors: Eusebi
authors: Maria P
authors: MP
authors: Foschini
authors: Jean-Pierre
authors: JP
authors: Bellocq
authors: Cristi
authors: C
authors: Marin
authors: Sten
authors: S
authors: Thorstenson
authors: Isabel
authors: I
authors: Amendoeira
authors: Angelika
authors: A
authors: Reiner-Concin
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Decker
authors: Manuela
authors: M
authors: Lacerda
authors: Paulo
authors: P
authors: Figueiredo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy