Pathological characteristics of distant non-metastatic breast cancer with axillary lymph node involvement

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers with several complications and rapid progress. Near and distant metastases are also common in this type of cancer. Rapid diagnosis of this disease followed by a rapid diagnosis of the possibility of metastasis are effective in better treatment and good prognosis for patients. This study aims to determine the pathological characteristics of distant non-metastatic breast cancer with axillary lymph node involvement. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 700 breast carcinoma samples were included, which were analyzed in two metastatic and non-metastatic groups. The pathological information of the patients is ready in their clinical records of the patients. The required information was collected from the clinical records of the patients. The evaluated variables include age, history of cancer in the family, type of breast carcinoma (ductal, lobular, mixed, metaplastic), the status of involved lymph nodes, tumor size (less than 2 cm, more than 2 cm, more than 5 cm, unknown), histological and nuclear grade of the tumor (T, N), presence of lymph vascular invasion (LVI), presence of perineural invasion (PNI), tumor score, tumor location, menopause status and reports of CT-Scan images, ultrasound, mammography and MRI were recorded. Results: Based on the obtained results, the mean age of the patients was 56.92 ± 13.15 years, with a range of 22 to 91 years. Breast carcinoma was generally metastatic in 116 patients (16.6%) and non-metastatic in 589 patients (83.4%). The highest frequency of the type of breast carcinoma was in line with the available evidence related to the ductal type, with a frequency of 96.3%. In the studied patients, in general, 490 patients were reported to have positive lymph node involvement, of which 161 cases were positive for ALN. Significantly, the frequency of positive ANL cases in patients with metastatic carcinoma was higher than in non-metastatic (44.5% vs. 18.3%; p=0.003). There was no difference between metastatic and non-metastatic carcinomas regarding the side of involvement (right or left) (p=0.404).