Title:Breast Edema of Early-stage Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Correlation with
Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis and Clinical-pathological Characteristics
Volume: 20
Author(s): Yang Zhang, Yuqing Xin, Nana Zhang, Xiankuo Hu, Bin Peng, Shaohua Zhang and Yushan Yuan*
Affiliation:
- Department of Radiology, Fuyang People’s Hospital, Fuyang 236000, Anhui Province, China
Keywords:
Edema, Axillary lymph node, Invasive ductal carcinoma, Magnetic resonance imaging, Breast neoplasms, Cancer.
Abstract:
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the association of different patterns of breast edema and clinical-pathological features and axillary lymph node (ALN)
status in early invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) for simple and readily available assessment and to guide surgeons to perform sentinel lymph node
biopsy for selected patients.
Materials and Methods:
This retrospective analysis involved 207 individuals with clinical T1-T2 stage IDC. The clinical-pathological features of the patients were
compared with different breast edema and ALN statuses. Independent risk factors for ALN metastasis were verified using multivariate logistic
regression analysis.
Results:
ALN metastasis was confirmed in 100 of 207 patients (48.3%) with early-stage IDC. Significant differences were found between different ALN
states for tumour size, clinical T stage, and breast edema (P <0.05). The clinical T2 stage (odds ratio-1.882, p=0.043) and moderate to severe
edema (odds ratio-10.869, p=0.004) were independent risk factors for ALN metastasis. Moreover, better prognostic factors, including smaller
tumour size, lower Ki-67 index and histologic grade, luminal A subtype, and lower incidence of lymph node metastasis, were more frequently
found in patients with no breast edema (p<0.05).
Conclusion:
Breast edema can be considered a promising feature to improve the predictive performance of pathological ALN status in patients with early-stage
breast cancer and thus may contribute to preoperative treatment planning.
