title: Effect of lymphangiogenesis and lymphovascular invasion on the survival pattern of breast cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Invasion of breast cancer cells into blood and lymphatic vessels is one of the most important steps for metastasis. In this study the prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in breast cancer patients was evaluated in terms of survival.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study concerned 518 breast cancer patients who were treated at Department of Surgical Oncology, Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre and Research Institute, Kolkata-700063, West Bengal, India, a reputed cancer centre and research institute of eastern India between January 2006 and December 2007.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median overall survival and disease free survival of the patients were 60 months and 54 months respectively. As per Log-rank test, poor overall as well as disease free survival pattern was observed for LVI positive patients as compared with LVI negative patients (p<0.01). Also poor overall as well as disease free survival pattern was observed for perineural invasion (PNI) positive patients as compared to PNI negative patients (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From this study it is evident that LVI and PNI are strongly associated with outcome in terms of disease free as well as overall survival in breast cancer patients. Thus LVI and PNI constitute potential targets for treatment of breast cancer patients. We advocate incorporating their status into breast cancer staging systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Oncology, Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre and Research Institute, Kolkata, India E-mail : debarsheejana@gmail. com, debarshijana@yahoo.in.
authors.forename: Pradyumna Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Sahoo
authors.forename: Debarshi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jana
authors.forename: Palash Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.forename: Samindranath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basak
mesh_terms: D002288:Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D018276:Carcinoma, Medullary / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D042583:Lymphangiogenesis; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D042601:Lymphatic Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D055815:Young Adult