Prediction of axillary lymph node status in male breast carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
To evaluate whether predictive factors of axillary lymph node metastasis in female breast cancer (BC) are similar in male BC.


METHODS
From January 1994 to May 2011, we recorded 80 non-metastatic male BC treated at Institut Curie (IC). We analysed the calibration and discrimination performance of two nomograms [IC, Memorian Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC)] originally designed to predict axillary lymph node metastases in female BC.


RESULTS
About 55% and 24% of the tumours were pT1 and pT4, respectively. Nearly 46% demonstrated axillary lymph node metastasis. About 99% were oestrogen receptor positive and 94% HER2 negative. Lymph node status was the only significant prognostic factor of overall survival (P = 0.012). The area under curve (AUC) of IC and MSKCC nomograms were 0.66 (95% CI 0.54-0.79) and 0.64 (95% CI 0.52-0.76), respectively. The calibration of these two models was inadequate.


CONCLUSIONS
Multi-variate models designed to predict axillary lymph node metastases for female BC were not effective in our male BC series. Our results may be explained by (i) small sample size (ii) different biological determinants influencing axillary metastasis in male BC compared with female BC.
Departments of Surgery.
C
C
Vaysse
Departments of Surgery.
J
J
Sroussi
Departments of Surgery.
P
P
Mallon
Departments of Surgery.
J G
JG
Feron
Departments of Surgery.
A L
AL
Rivain
Departments of Surgery.
C
C
Ngo
Departments of Surgery.
C
C
Belichard
Departments of Surgery.
S
S
Lasry
Medical Oncology.
J Y
JY
Pierga
Departments of Surgery.
B
B
Couturaud
Departments of Surgery.
A
A
Fitoussi
Departments of Surgery.
F
F
Laki
Departments of Surgery.
V
V
Fourchotte
Departments of Surgery.
S
S
Alran
Radiotherapy.
Y
Y
Kirova
Biology of Tumors, Institut Curie, Paris, France.
A
A
Vincent-Salomon
Biology of Tumors, Institut Curie, Paris, France.
X
X
Sastre-Garau
Biology of Tumors, Institut Curie, Paris, France.
B
B
Sigal-Zafrani
Departments of Surgery.
R
R
Rouzier
Departments of Surgery. Electronic address: fabien.reyal@curie.net.
F
F
Reyal
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001365:Axilla; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D049451:Nomograms; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy
D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases