Axillary skip metastases in breast cancer / 中华肿瘤杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics and the prognostic factors of breast cancer patients with skip metastases in the axilla.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinical data of 1502 breast cancer patients who underwent complete axillary lymph node dissection were retrospectively reviewed. The patterns of skip metastases, clinical features and prognostic factors were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 1502 patients, lymph node metastases were found in 814, of whom skip metastases in 119 (14.6%, 119/814). The Clinicopathologic factors such as age, tumor size, tumor location, clinical stage, hormonal receptor status and involved interpectoral lymph nodes were not correlated with skip metastases (P > 0.05). The disease free survival rate was lower in clinical stage I and II patients with skip metastases than that in those without (P = 0.003), while no significant difference was observed in clinical stage III patients (P = 0.457). Multivariate analysis showed that the tumor size, number of metastatic lymph nodes, extracapsular invasion of the lymph nodes and skip metastases in the axilla were significantly correlated with survival rate.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Skip metastasis in the axilla cannot be accurately predicted by clinicopathologic factors. Early breast cancer patients with skip metastases should be treated properly due to poor prognosis.</p>