Prognostic significance of lymph node ratio in axillary lymph node positive breast cancer / 中国综合临床

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the prognostic significance of lymph node ratio (LNR) in axillary lymph node positive breast cancer.Methods Eight hundred and three cases axillary lymph node positive breast cancer patients without distant metastasis were systematically treated in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University from 2006 to 2014,at least 10 lymph node removed in each case.Clinicopathological data including 5-year disease-free survival rate (5y-DFSR) and 5-year overall survival rate (5y-OSR) were described.Factors related with prognosis were analyzed by univariate analysis.Prognostic difference was compared among different LNR stage in each axillary lymph node pathological stage(pN).Prognostic significance of pN and LNR was compared by multivariate analysis.Results Mean lymph nodes removed were 15.47±4.70 lymph,and median positive lymph nodes were 4 lymph in 803 cases axillary lymph node positive breast cancer patients.Altogether 159 cases of local recurrence and distant metastasis and 99 cases of breast cancer-related death occurred during median follow-up of 61 months.Five-year DFSR was 77％ and 5y-OSR was 83％.Log-rank univariate analysis showen that pT,pN,LNR,lymphovascular invasion and ER status were related to DFS and OS.Five-year DFSR and OSR for pN1,pN2,pN3 were 89％,68％,59％ and 93％,78％,63％,respectively,whereas 5y-DFSR and 5y-OSR for LNR1,LNR2,LNR3 were 90％,69％,56％ and 94％,80％,57％,respectively.There was statistically significant difference among different LNR in pN1 and pN2 (pN1DFSP=0.005,0SP=0.024;pN2DFSP=0.017,0SP=0.000),but not in pN3,inspite of difference tendency (DFSP =0.165,OSP =0.075).In multivariate analysis,when pN or LNR were entered into the Cox regression mode respectively,both were the independent prognostic factors of DFS(P＜0.001) and OS(P＜0.001).When pN and LNR were entered into the Cox hazard regression model at the same time,LNR remained as the independent prognostic factor of DFS and OS (P ＜ 0.001),but pN lost significance (DFSP =0.461,OSP=0.162).Conclusion LNR is independent prognostic factor for positive axillary lymph node breast cancer.