Micrometastasis of axillary lymph nodes and the nm23 expression in breast cancer / 中国普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate micrometastasis in axillary lymph nodes and its relationship with nm23 expression of the tumor tissue in breast cancer patients. Methods Paraffin blocks of 832 surgically removed lymph nodes and carcinoma tissues from 52 lymph node negative cases comfirmed by routine pathology were re examined by immunohistochemical staining using monoclonal anti EMA and anti nm23 H1 respectively. Results Micrometastasis were observed in 12 of the 52 patients (23.0%) and in 34 of the 832 lymph nodes ( 4.1% ). The positive rate of micrometastasis that in the tumor larger than 2.0cm or poorly differentiated was significantly higher than in the tumor