Internal mammary nodes metastases for breast cancer: whether the morphological verification is necessary?

Abstract

Background. Metastatic involvement of the internal mammary chain lymph nodes (IMN) is associated with poor prognosis for breast cancer (BC) patients. However, parasternal radiation therapy is still a subject for debate. Methods. Results of 1144 consecutively treated patients with primary BC, who underwent one-stage videothoracoscopic (VATS) parasternal lymphadenectomy from 1998 to 2009, were retrospectively studied. Results. Surgical complications associated with thoracoscopic procedure did not exceed 2%. IMN metastases were detected in 211 (18.4%) patients, 6.0% of these cases did not have axillary invasion. In a wide analysis, the frequency of metastasis was statistically more influenced by: tumor localization (different from external quadrants), primary tumor size (T), level of involved axillary lymph nodes (N) and lymphovascular invasion. Patients with IMN metastases showed significantly poorer long-term outcomes: 5-year overall - OS and disease-free survival - DFS (OS 79.0±3.1% vs 91.4±1.0%, p

Keywords

• breast cancer
• internal mammary nodes
• videothoracoscopic parasternal lymphadenectomy