PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hui, Rui
AU  - Zhao, Fengyun
TI  - Prognostic Significance of Axillary Lymph Node Micrometastases and Microvessel Count in Breast Cancer
DP  - 2004 Jun 01
TA  - Chinese Journal of Clinical Oncology
PG  - 221--224
VI  - 1
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/1/3/221.short
4100  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/1/3/221.full
SO  - Cancer Biol Med2004 Jun 01; 1
AB  - OBJECTIVE To investigate the influence of axillary lymph node micrometastases and the microvessel count on the prognosis of patients with breast cancer.METHODS Forty-eight patients with breast cancer, who had no tumor cells in their regional lymph nodes based on conventional histopathologic examination, were re-examined with immunohistochemical LSAB techniques. H&E, anti-EMA, CK 19 and FVIII factor staining was used to identify tumor cells in both lymph nodes and tumor tissues and to count the microvessels. A total of 882 lymph nodes were examined.RESULTS Immunostaining-positive tumor cells were found in 9.0 % (79/882) of the dissected lymph nodes. The positive rates were not significantly different between a surviving group and a deceased group (P>0.05). The microvessel count was significantly higher in group that had died (P<0.001).CONCLUSION The lymph node micrometastases did not show any correlation with patients survival, but the microvessel density had a negative correlation with the survival period in breast cancer patients who had negative axillary lymph nodes.