Abstract:
Objective To investigate clinicopathological factors of breast cancer patients having 1-2 sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) with different molecular types for avoiding axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) and provide clinical evidence for preventing future ALND.
Methods This retrospective study included 274 patients with breast cancer that was confirmed via pathological examination in The Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University and The Affiliated People’s Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University from June 2009 to June 2018. Univariate and Logistic multivariate analyses were used to screen patients with 1-2 SLNs with a low metastasis rate of non-SLN (NSLN) and to evaluate the relationships between NSLN and different molecular types.
Results The metastasis rate of NSLN was 36.9% (101/274) among 274 breast cancer patients with 1-2 SLNs. HER-2-positive (HR-positive) patients had the highest NSLN metastasis rate, accounting for 55.3% (21/38) of patients, while triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients had the lowest NSLN metastasis rate, accounting for 18.5%(5/27) of patients. The NSLN metastasis rate of patients with luminal B (HER-2-negative) breast cancer was significantly higher than that of patients with luminal A breast cancer (P=0.010) and TNBC (P=0.011). The NSLN metastasis rate of patients with HER-2-positive (HR-positive) breast cancer was significantly higher than that of patients with luminal A breast cancer (P=0.002) and TNBC (P=0.003). Logistic multivariate analyses revealed that the number of SLN metastases (OR=4.022, 95%CI: 2.348-6.889, P<0.001), SLN detection (OR=3.846, 95%CI: 1.541-9.600, P=0.004), histological grade (P<0.001), and molecular type (P=0.004) were independent influencing factors for NSLN metastasis in breast cancer patients with 1-2 SLNs.
Conclusions The NSLN metastasis rate was higher in patients with luminal B (HER-2-negative) and HER-2-positive (HR-positive) breast cancer. The number of SLN metastases, SLN detection , histological grade, and molecular typing were independent influencing factors for NSLN metastases.