scholarly journals Evaluating the Effect of Axillary Lymph Node Involvement and Dissection in the Development of Post-Mastectomy Lymphedema

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdulnabi ◽  
Issam Merdan

Background: Lymphedema of the upper extremity is a serious consequence of breast cancer surgery. Postmastectomy lymphedema of the upper limb is usually related to many risk factors, like axillary surgery, radiotherapy, venous obstruction, obesity, and infection. In the current study, the objective was to identify the relationship between the extent of lymph node involvement and axillary dissection on the development of lymphedema. Patients and methods: One hundred and seventy patients managed by modified radical mastectomy with axillary dissection for mammary-invasive adenocarcinoma between January 2009 and December 2016 in Al-Fayhaa Teaching Hospital. The patients were divided into three groups according to the number of lymph nodes involvd, by pathology. The patients had been followed up for at least two years and assessed by standard lymphedema assessment, then categorized into three groups, according to the severity of lymphedema. Results: After the analysis of patient parameters, the highest age group was 36–45 years. More than 60% of the patients had 4–9 lymph nodes involved. Forty-one patients from the 170 developed lymphedema postoperatively. Forty patients had seroma and twenty-one patients had wound infection postoperatively. Conclusion: Post-mastectomy lymphedema is a sequelae of disease process related to the extent of lymph-node involvement and resection rather than operative fault. Key words: breast cancer, mastectomy, lymphedema.

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 497-505
Author(s):  
C. H. M. van Deurzen ◽  
R. van Hillegersberg ◽  
M. G. G. Hobbelink ◽  
C. A. Seldenrijk ◽  
R. Koelemij ◽  
...  

Background: The need for routine axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in patients with invasive breast cancer and low-volume sentinel node (SN) involvement is questionable. Accurate prediction of second echelon lymph node involvement could identify those patients most likely to benefit from ALND.Methods: A consecutive series of 317 patients with invasive breast cancer and a tumor positive axillary SN followed by ALND was reviewed. Clinicopathologic features of the primary tumor and the SN were assessed as possible predictors of second echelon lymph node involvement.Results: Second echelon metastases were found in 116/317 cases (36.6%). Frequency of second echelon lymph node involvement in patients with isolated tumor cells (ITC, N = 23), micro- (N = 101) and macrometastases (N = 193) was 13%, 20% and 48%, respectively (p < 0.001). Based on the area % of SN occupied by tumor no subgroup of patients could be selected with less than 20% second echelon lymph node involvement. However, none of the patients with SN ITC or micrometastases and a primary tumor size ≤1 cm (N = 12, 3.8%) had second echelon lymph node involvement.Conclusions: Accurately measured SN tumor load predicts second echelon lymph node involvement. However, even in patients with ITC, the second echelon lymph nodes are involved in 13% justifying ALND.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 471
Author(s):  
Min Young Lee ◽  
Eunjung Kong ◽  
Dong Gyu Lee

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.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madiha Liaqat ◽  
Shahid Kamal ◽  
Florian Fischer ◽  
Nadeem Zia

Abstract Background: Involvement of lymph nodes has been an integral part of breast cancer prognosis and survival. This study aimed to explore factors influencing on the number of auxiliary lymph nodes in women diagnosed with primary breast cancer by choosing an efficient model to assess excess of zeros and over-dispersion presented in the study population. Methods: The study is based on a retrospective analysis of hospital records among 5,196 female breast cancer patients in Pakistan. Zero-inflated Poisson and zero-inflated negative binomial modeling techniques are used to assess the association between under-study factors and the number of involved lymph nodes in breast cancer patients. Results: The most common breast cancer was invasive ductal carcinoma (54.5%). Patients median age was 48 years, from which women aged 46 years and above are the majority of the study population (64.8%). Examination of tumors revealed that over 2,662 (51.2%) women were ER-positive, 2,652 (51.0%) PR-positive, and 2,754 (53.0%) were Her2.neu-positive. The mean tumor size was 3.06 cm and histological grade 1 (n=2021, 38.9%) was most common in this sample. The model performance was best in the zero-inflated negative binomial model. Findings indicate that most factors related to breast cancer have a significant impact on the number of involved lymph nodes. Age is not contributed to lymph node status. Women having a larger tumor size suffered from greater number of involved lymph nodes. Tumor grades 11 and 111 contributed to higher numbers of positive lymph node.Conclusions: Zero-inflated models have successfully demonstrated the advantage of fitting count nodal data when both “at-harm” (lymph node involvement) and “not-at-harm” (no lymph node involvement) groups are important in predicting disease on set and disease progression. Our analysis showed that ZINB is the best model for predicting and describing the number of involved nodes in primary breast cancer, when overdispersion arises due to a large number of patients with no lymph node involvement. This is important for accurate prediction both for therapy and prognosis of breast cancer patients.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Juliana Cunha e Silva Ominelli De Souza ◽  
Andrew Sá Nunes ◽  
Jesse Lopes Da Silva ◽  
Aline Coelho Gonçalves ◽  
Suzanne Crocamo Ventilari Da Costa

Introduction: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women aged 20-59 years. Younger women usually have more aggressive tumors and more advanced disease with larger size and axillary lymph node involvement. There have been few studies assessing the characteristics of breast cancer in very young women. Objective: Evaluate the epidemiological and clinical profile of non-metastatic very young patients with breast cancer. Method: We performed a retrospective analysis to evaluate the epidemiological and clinical profile of non-metastatic breast cancer in patients ≤ 30 years of age treated between 1993 and 2011 at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute José Alencar Gomes da Silva. We evaluated relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: Of the 196 patients evaluated, 181 (90%) had ductal carcinoma, 79 (40%) had high-grade tumors, and 102 (52%) had hormone receptor-positive tumors. 117 patients(60%) had stage III disease at diagnosis. The median age was 29 years (range, 17-30 years). Of 185 patients who underwent surgery, 156 (84.3%) underwent total mastectomy and 171 (92%) underwent axillary lymph node dissection. 119 patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and 14 patients (9.3%) underwent neoadjuvant radiotherapy. After a median follow-up of 81.5 months, 109 patients (55%) had relapsed and 81 (41%) had died. The median RFS and OS were 49.5 months and 134 months, respectively. Lymph node involvement and neoadjuvant chemotherapy were associated with shorter RFS and OS. Conclusion: Breast cancer is uncommon in young patients, especially in those ≤ 30 years of age. We found a predominance of locally advanced disease and worse prognostic pathological characteristics. Despite the aggressive treatment, our patients had worse outcomes than those reported by other authors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (7) ◽  
pp. 690-694
Author(s):  
Richard L. White ◽  
Pooja P. Palmer ◽  
Sally J. Trufan ◽  
Deba Sarma

Some authors report that patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy have fewer lymph nodes harvested during axillary dissection and more dissections with < 10 nodes compared with patients who undergo surgery initially. We sought to determine whether there was a difference between these patient groups in terms of number of nodes harvested and number of dissections with < 10 nodes. Retrospective review of 258 patients diagnosed with breast cancer who underwent an axillary lymph node dissection between July 1,2015, and December 31, 2017 was performed. Chi-squared test was used to assess differences between patient groups. Of 258 patients undergoing dissection, 48 per cent received neoadjuvant chemotherapy; 52 per cent underwent surgery as first therapeutic intervention. Mean number of nodes resected; 14.3 + 6.3 for patients with no prior chemotherapy versus 14.9 + 6.6 for patients with neoadjuvant chemotherapy ( P = 0.48). For patients undergoing surgery as first intervention, 21 per cent had < 10 nodes harvested. For patients receiving neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, 20 per cent had < 10 nodes harvested. Patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy showed no statistically significant difference in the number of lymph nodes harvested during axillary dissection compared with patients undergoing surgery as first intervention. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy does not reduce the node harvest at the time of axillary dissection.


1976 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Di Pietro ◽  
Lucio Bertario ◽  
Giulio Cantù ◽  
Alberto Re

The chronology of first recurrences, their topographic distribution and survival from mastectomy were retrospectively studied in a series of 800 mastectomized women with special reference to the relationship between these data and treatment delay, T N categories and free interval. Visceral metastases were more frequent in patients under 50 years, whereas local recurrences were more common in patients over 50. The average free interval was 26 months (over 5 years in 18% of cases) and seemed to be influenced little by the treament delay or by tumor size; it was shorter in patients under 50 years and shorter still in patients with lymph node involvement at operation. A similar correlation exists between these parameters and survival. The 5 year survival rate of the 800 cases with recurrence was 52%, which is quite different from the rate generally indicated for surgical cases, and much higher than the rate for the natural history of untreated breast cancer. The survival rate in cases with first metastases confined to the soft tissues is much higher than in those with bone and/or with visceral metastases. The survival after recurrence proves to be significantly influenced by the length of the free interval, but much more by the presence or absence of regional lymph node involvement, so that the lymph nodes status (N–- or N+) turns out to be a prognostic item of primary importance, even after the onset of recurrence.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document