Predicting the extent of nodal disease in early breast cancer.
95 Background: In early-stage breast cancer patients, the number of positive lymph nodes (LN) is considered in decisions regarding surgery and radiation. The goal of this study was to characterize the extent of axillary nodal involvement based on clinicopathologic and imaging features. Methods: A prospective database was used to identify T1-2 patients who underwent regional nodal ultrasound (US) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) from 2002-2012. Patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy or had extra-axillary LN metastases were excluded. Subjects were grouped by whether axillary metastases (AxM) were identified by US confirmed by needle biopsy or by sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND) after a negative US, then compared using X2 and Rank-Sum tests as appropriate. Results: AxM were identified by US in 190 patients and SLND in 518 patients. When compared to US-detected patients, SLND patients had fewer positive nodes (2.2 vs. 4.1, p < 0.0001), smaller metastases (5.3 vs. 13.8 mm, p < 0.0001), and a lower incidence of extranodal extension (ENE) (24% vs. 53%, p < 0.0001). Limiting analyses to patients with ≤ 2 abnormal LN on US, US-detected patients still had more positive LN (3.6, p < 0.001), larger metastases (13.4 mm, p < 0.0001), and a higher incidence of ENE (50%, p < 0.001) with more than 2 positive LN found in 45% of the US group versus 19% of the SLND group (p < 0.001). In patients with lobular histology there were no differences in number of positive LN (4 in SLND vs. 3.6 in US, p = 0.36), or ENE (34% SLND vs. 36% US, p = 0.9). Positive non-SLN were found in 23% (96/415) of patients with ductal tumors and 36% (21/59) of those with lobular tumors. In multivariate analysis, having metastases found by US (OR 4.01, 95% CI 2.75-5.84) and lobular histology (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.06-2.95) predicted having > 2 positive LN adjusting for tumor size, receptor subtype, and histology. Conclusions: Patients with AxM found by US have more positive nodes, larger metastases, and higher risk of ENE, even if ≤ 2 suspicious LN are seen on US compared to patients with SLND-detected AxM. Tumor histology also predicts nodal burden. Clinicians can use imaging and clinicopathologic features to predict extent of nodal involvement and appropriately counsel patients regarding treatment decisions.