title: Intratumoral and peritumoral lymphatic vessel density both correlate with lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.
abstract: The status of lymph node involvement is an important prognostic factor for breast cancer. However, the presence of intratumoral lymphatic vessels in primary tumor lesions and the relationship between lymphatic vessel density (LVD) and lymph node metastasis (LNM) have not been firmly established. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis study to investigate these issues. According to the pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria, 13 studies, involving 1029 breast cancer patients, were included in this study. Using immunohistochemical staining, intratumoral lymphatic vessels were detected in 40.07% of breast cancer patients (240/599), and peritumoral lymphatics were detected in 77.09% (397/515). All studies demonstrated that peritumoral LVD was higher than intratumoral LVD, with a pooled standard mean difference and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of 1.75 (1.28 to 2.21). Both intratumoral LVD and peritumoral LVD positively correlated with LNM, with correlation coefficients of 0.14 (95% CI 0.05 to 0.23) and 0.31 (95% CI 0.13 to 0.49), respectively. In summary, our study reports the overall detection rate of intratumoral lymphatics and demonstrates the associations between intratumoral LVD, peritumoral LVD, and LNM in breast cancer. Additionally, controlled studies with a larger number of subjects are needed to establish these relationships.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
authors.forename: Shanhong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
authors.forename: Mingfu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
authors.forename: Yuanqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China.
authors.forename: Liguang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D042601:Lymphatic Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017594:Publication Bias