Extracapsular extension is associated with increased ratio of metastatic to examined lymph nodes in axillary node-positive breast cancer.
BACKGROUND
Extracapsular extension of nodal tumor cells, although it is not a parameter of staging, has recently been shown to be correlated with the high number of metastatic lymph nodes in patients with axillary-positive breast cancer. It is suggested that the use of involved/examined lymph node ratio instead of the number of metastatic lymph nodes in axillary evaluation would obtain standardized prognostic data for patient management. This study investigated the association of the extracapsular extension with the lymph node ratio in a node-positive group of patients.


METHODS
Medical records of 170 patients with positive axillary status were retrospectively reviewed. Of these, 54 were extracapsular extension positive, and the remaining were extracapsular extension negative. A comparison was made between extracapsular extension-positive and extracapsular extension-negative groups with respect to some potential prognostic indicators.


RESULTS
Number of metastatic lymph nodes, number of examined lymph nodes, and involved/examined lymph node ratio were found to be significantly higher in patients with a presence of extracapsular extension.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the presence of extracapsular extension might force physicians to perform more aggressive adjuvant therapies and that the extracapsular extension could be a valuable parameter in the management of breast cancer because it has a strong relationship with the proven prognostic factors.
Gorgulu
Semih
S
Department of General Surgery, Gulhane School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
Can
Mehmet F
MF
Yagci
Gokhan
G
Sahin
Mutlu
M
Tufan
Turgut
T
D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies