title: [Axillary lymph node metastases with an occult breast: About 16 cases from a cohort of 7770 patients].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Isolated axillary lymph node metastases is an unusual clinical presentation of breast carcinoma. We studied its different issues.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a follow-up study of 16patients, treated between 1996 and 2012, presenting with axillary metastases with an occult breast carcinoma, which could not be identified by physical examination nor by a conventional imaging or a breast MRI. Clinical characteristics, histological analysis, treatment, monitoring and five-year survival rate were studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of this kind of breast cancer was 0.20%. A breast MRI was performed in 75% of the patients. The histology of these tumors showed a rate of hormono-sensibility of 50% and an HER2 overexpression of 44%. Sixty-nine percent of the patients had no breast surgery or radiotherapy; global five-year survival rate for these women was 77.4%±11.5.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The survival rates of this study should lead the practitioner to choose a less aggressive breast therapy. Moreover, the histological characteristics explain the high metastatic potential of these tumors, and relate them to the HER2+ subclass of gene expression patterns of breast carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Département de chirurgie oncologique, centre Léon-Bérard, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, 28, rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Couder
authors.affiliation: Département de chirurgie oncologique, centre Léon-Bérard, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, 28, rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.affiliation: Département d'anatomo-pathologie, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Treilleux
authors.affiliation: Département d'oncologie médicale, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tredan
authors.affiliation: Département de chirurgie oncologique, centre Léon-Bérard, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, 28, rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Faure
authors.affiliation: Département de chirurgie oncologique, centre Léon-Bérard, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, 28, rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carrabin
authors.affiliation: Département de chirurgie oncologique, centre Léon-Bérard, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, 28, rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Beurrier
authors.affiliation: Département de chirurgie oncologique, centre Léon-Bérard, centre de lutte contre le cancer Lyon et Rhône-Alpes, 28, rue Laënnec, 69373 Lyon cedex 08, France. Electronic address: nicolas.chopin@lyon.unicancer.fr.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chopin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis; D011987:Receptors, Steroid / Q000032:analysis; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011987:Receptors, Steroid; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human
keywords: Axillary metastases; Breast cancer; Cancer du sein; Cancer of unknown primary; Cancers sans tumeur primitive retrouvée; Métastases axillaires; Occult breast carcinoma; Tumeur primitive du sein non identifiée