The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between pretreatment molecular and clinical factors and axillary lymph node metastases in early breast cancer. A total of 367 consecutive breast cancer patients with cT1-2NxM0 who underwent breast conserving surgery and axillary lymph node dissection followed by whole breast irradiation were enrolled. We evaluated the pathologic tumor and no...

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy has become the standard surgical procedure for the sampling of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer. Intra-operative node assessment of these nodes would allow definitive axillary surgery to take place immediately with associated benefits for patient management. Our experimental study aims to demonstrate that a Raman spectroscopy probe system could overcome many of t...

OBJECTIVE To propose an algorithm to determine the necessity for ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-FNA) in preoperative axillary lymph node staging of patients with invasive breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Prospective study developed at National Cancer Institute. The study sample included 100 female patients with breast cancer referred for axillary staging by US-FNA. RE...

Materials and Methods: Electronic medical records of 282 patients (467 breasts) undergoing mastectomy with immediate reconstruction at our institution from 2010–2012 were reviewed to collect clinical and post-operative data. Charts were analysed to determine the association between the absolute number of axillary lymph nodes removed and post reconstructive incidence of skin necrosis, cellulitis...

Axillary lymph node evaluation remains essential in breast cancer surgery, first as a prognostic factor, because it indicates the degree of dissemination of the disease to the main lymphatic drainage basin of the breast, and, on the other hand, as an element of preventing the local relapse. In the era of the sentinel lymph node, complete axillary lymphadenectomy, considered valuable until recen...

The prognostic value of clinical, quantitative, and qualitative microscopical features of both the primary tumour and also of the affected lymph nodes were investigated in 71 patients with breast cancer with spread to lymph nodes (T X N + M0). Age, tumour size, and localisation of the tumour comprised the clinical features; morphometry included assessment of the cellularity index, the mitotic a...

Background: Breast cancer is formed of a neoplastic component (epithelial) and a non-neoplastic component (stroma). Stromal- stromal and tumor- stromal interactions have been shown in the regulation of cancer cell growth, metastatic capacity and outcome of treatment. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are a component of tumor stroma reactionsand are considered as an important ...

AIM To implement an audit scheme to increase the lymph node yield from axillary clearance specimens. METHODS Two pathologists cut up each specimen after weighing it. The number of nodes and the dimensions of the largest and smallest nodes were recorded, together with the number of non-lymph node structures recovered. Fifty consecutive audited cases were compared with 50 consecutive cases asse...

Axillary staging of patients with early-stage breast cancer is essential in the treatment planning. Currently such staging is intraoperatively performed, but there is a tendency to seek a preoperative and less invasive technique to detect lymph node metastasis. Ultrasonography is widely utilized for this purpose, many times in association with fine-needle aspiration biopsy or core needle biopsy...

Administering adjuvant irradiation to the level III axilla and supraclavicular fossa (SCF) is indicated for those patients who undergo the standard level I-II axillary dissection and who have four or more positive axillary nodes or T3-4 primary disease.(1-3) The risk of failure in the axillary apex or SCF is less than 5% for the patients who have T1-2 primary tumors and fewer than 4 involved ax...