A Point of View: Trauma is the Cause of Occult Micrometastatic Breast Cancer in Sentinel Axillary Lymph Nodes

Abstract Background Due to the high variability of incidence and prevalence of intra-mammary lymph nodes (IMLNs), they might be overlooked during clinical and radiological examinations. Properly characterizing pathological IMLNs and detecting the factors that might influence their prevalence in different stages of breast cancer might aid in proper therapeutic decision-making and could be of possible prognostic value. Methods Medical records were reviewed for all breast cancer patients treated at the National Cancer Institute of Cairo University between 2013 and 2019. Radiological, pathological, and surgical data were studied. Results Intra-mammary lymph nodes were described in the final pathology reports of 100 patients. Five cases had benign breast lesion. Three cases had phyllodes tumors and two cases had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). All ten cases were excluded. The remaining 90 cases all had invasive breast cancer and were divided into two groups: one group for patients with malignant IMLNs (48) and another for patients with benign IMLNs (42). Pathological features of the malignant IMLN group included larger mean tumor size in pathology (4.7 cm), larger mean size of the IMLN in pathology (1.7 cm), higher incidence of lympho-vascular invasion (65.9%), and higher rate of extracapsular extension in axillary lymph nodes (57.4%). In addition, the pathological N stage was significantly higher in the malignant IMLN group. Conclusion Clinicians frequently overlook intra-mammary lymph nodes. More effort should be performed to detect them during preoperative imaging and during pathological processing of specimens. A suspicious IMLN should undergo a percutaneous biopsy. Malignant IMLNs are associated with advanced pathological features and should be removed during surgery.

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Dedicated Axillary MRI-Based Radiomics Analysis for the Prediction of Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer

Cancers ◽

10.3390/cancers13040757 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 757

Author(s):

Sanaz Samiei ◽

Renée W. Y. Granzier ◽

Abdalla Ibrahim ◽

Sergey Primakov ◽

Marc B. I. Lobbes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Node Metastasis ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis ◽

Axillary Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Mr Images ◽

Node Metastasis

Radiomics features may contribute to increased diagnostic performance of MRI in the prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis. The objective of the study was to predict preoperative axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer using clinical models and radiomics models based on T2-weighted (T2W) dedicated axillary MRI features with node-by-node analysis. From August 2012 until October 2014, all women who had undergone dedicated axillary 3.0T T2W MRI, followed by axillary surgery, were retrospectively identified, and available clinical data were collected. All axillary lymph nodes were manually delineated on the T2W MR images, and quantitative radiomics features were extracted from the delineated regions. Data were partitioned patient-wise to train 100 models using different splits for the training and validation cohorts to account for multiple lymph nodes per patient and class imbalance. Features were selected in the training cohorts using recursive feature elimination with repeated 5-fold cross-validation, followed by the development of random forest models. The performance of the models was assessed using the area under the curve (AUC). A total of 75 women (median age, 61 years; interquartile range, 51–68 years) with 511 axillary lymph nodes were included. On final pathology, 36 (7%) of the lymph nodes had metastasis. A total of 105 original radiomics features were extracted from the T2W MR images. Each cohort split resulted in a different number of lymph nodes in the training cohorts and a different set of selected features. Performance of the 100 clinical and radiomics models showed a wide range of AUC values between 0.41–0.74 and 0.48–0.89 in the training cohorts, respectively, and between 0.30–0.98 and 0.37–0.99 in the validation cohorts, respectively. With these results, it was not possible to obtain a final prediction model. Clinical characteristics and dedicated axillary MRI-based radiomics with node-by-node analysis did not contribute to the prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer based on data where variations in acquisition and reconstruction parameters were not addressed.

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Systemic immune reaction in axillary lymph nodes adds to tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in triple-negative breast cancer prognostication

npj Breast Cancer ◽

10.1038/s41523-021-00292-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Fangfang Liu ◽

Thomas Hardiman ◽

Kailiang Wu ◽

Jelmar Quist ◽

Patrycja Gazinska ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Immune Responses ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Triple Negative ◽

Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes ◽

Axillary Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Her2 Positive ◽

Local Immunity ◽

Infiltrating Lymphocytes

AbstractThe level of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2-positive breast cancers convey prognostic information. The importance of systemic immunity to local immunity is unknown in breast cancer. We previously demonstrated that histological alterations in axillary lymph nodes (LNs) carry clinical relevance. Here, we capture local immune responses by scoring TILs at the primary tumor and systemic immune responses by recording the formation of secondary follicles, also known as germinal centers, in 2,857 cancer-free and involved axillary LNs on haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections from a retrospective cohort of 161 LN-positive triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Our data demonstrate that the number of germinal center formations across all cancer-free LNs, similar to high levels of TILs, is associated with a good prognosis in low TILs TNBC. This highlights the importance of assessing both primary and LN immune responses for prognostication and for future breast cancer research.

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The Findings of SPECT/CT Concerning Bypass Lymph Circulation in Lymphedema Following Breast Cancer Surgery

Healthcare ◽

10.3390/healthcare9040471 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 471

Author(s):

Min Young Lee ◽

Eunjung Kong ◽

Dong Gyu Lee

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Lymphatic Drainage ◽

Cancer Surgery ◽

Breast Cancer Surgery ◽

Axillary Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Node Dissection ◽

Positive Group

This study aimed to determine whether bypass circulation was present in lymphedema and its effect. This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study. Patients who underwent unilateral breast cancer surgery with axillary lymph node dissection were recruited and underwent single-photon emission tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT). SPECT/CT was performed to detect the three-dimensional locations of radio-activated lymph nodes. Patients with radioactivity in anatomical locations other than axillary lymph nodes were classified into a positive group. All patients received complete decongestive therapy (CDT). Exclusion criteria were as follows: History of bilateral breast cancer surgery, cervical lymph node dissection history, and upper extremity amputation. The difference in the upper extremity circumference (cm) was measured at four points: Mid-point of the upper arm, elbow, and 10 and 15 cm below the elbow. Twenty-nine patients were included in this study. Fifteen patients (51.7%) had bypass lymphatic systems on the affected side, six (20.7%) had a bypass lymphatic system with axillary lymph nodes on the unaffected side, and 11 (37.9%) showed new lymphatic drainage. The positive group showed significantly less swelling than the negative group at the mid-arm, elbow, and 15 cm below the elbow. Bypass lymphatic circulation had two patterns: Infraclavicular lymph nodes and supraclavicular and/or cervical lymph nodes. Changes in lymph drainage caused by surgery triggered the activation of the superficial lymphatic drainage system to relieve lymphedema. Superficial lymphatic drainage has a connection through the deltopectoral groove.

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Fat-enlarged axillary lymph nodes are associated with node-positive breast cancer in obese patients

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment ◽

10.1007/s10549-021-06262-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Roberta M. diFlorio-Alexander ◽

Qingyuan Song ◽

Dennis Dwan ◽

Judith A. Austin-Strohbehn ◽

Kristen E. Muller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Invasive Breast Cancer ◽

Breast Mri ◽

Axillary Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Obese Women ◽

Axillary Metastases ◽

Node Positive ◽

Positive Breast Cancer

Abstract Purpose Obesity associated fat infiltration of organ systems is accompanied by organ dysfunction and poor cancer outcomes. Obese women demonstrate variable degrees of fat infiltration of axillary lymph nodes (LNs), and they are at increased risk for node-positive breast cancer. However, the relationship between enlarged axillary nodes and axillary metastases has not been investigated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between axillary metastases and fat-enlarged axillary nodes visualized on mammograms and breast MRI in obese women with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. Methods This retrospective case–control study included 431 patients with histologically confirmed invasive breast cancer. The primary analysis of this study included 306 patients with pre-treatment and pre-operative breast MRI and body mass index (BMI) > 30 (201 node-positive cases and 105 randomly selected node-negative controls) diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between April 1, 2011, and March 1, 2020. The largest visible LN was measured in the axilla contralateral to the known breast cancer on breast MRI. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between node-positive status and LN size adjusting for age, BMI, tumor size, tumor grade, tumor subtype, and lymphovascular invasion. Results A strong likelihood of node-positive breast cancer was observed among obese women with fat-expanded lymph nodes (adjusted OR for the 4th vs. 1st quartile for contralateral LN size on MRI: 9.70; 95% CI 4.26, 23.50; p < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic curve for size of fat-enlarged nodes in the contralateral axilla identified on breast MRI had an area under the curve of 0.72 for predicting axillary metastasis, and this increased to 0.77 when combined with patient and tumor characteristics. Conclusion Fat expansion of axillary lymph nodes was associated with a high likelihood of axillary metastases in obese women with invasive breast cancer independent of BMI and tumor characteristics.

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