title: [Impact of response of positive axillary nodes to neoadjuvant chemotherapy on breast cancer survival].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the distant disease-free survival between breast cancer patients with nodal pathological complete response (pCR) and those with nodal residual disease (RD) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical and pathological data of 376 needle biopsy proved node positive breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median follow-up time was 24 months (range: 5 - 100). The pCR rate of axillary lymph node was 30.9%. And the three-year distant disease-free survival (DDFS) rates were 91.7% and 78.8% in the patients with axillary lymph node pCR and RD respectively. According to the Log-rank test, there were significant differences in survival curves (P = 0.016). Multivariate analysis showed that the relative risk of DDFS for patients with RD was 2.14 folds of than that of the pCR group (P = 0.047). No significant difference existed between the disease-free survival (DFS) curve in two groups. DDFS had significant differences between the patients with the number of lymph node metastasis ≤ 3 and ≥ 4 in the RD group (P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The distant disease-free survival of node positive breast cancer is associated with the status of axillary lymph node after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Breast Cancer Prevention & Treatment Center, Beijing Cancer Hospital, School of Oncology, Peking University, Beijing 100142, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ying-jian
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.forename: Jin-feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yun-tao
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Tian-feng
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhao-qing
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Tie
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ouyang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001365:Axilla / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies