Predictive Factors to Lymph Node Involvement on Breast Cancer

Abstract

Axillary lymph nodes metastases (ALM) are considered to be the most important prognostic factor for breast cancer. Data from 306 infiltrating ductal carcinomas consecutively diagnosed and treated over a period of 20 months were analised through a case-control study to assess predictive factors for the ocurrence of ALM. Bivariate analysis showed that some of variables were statistically associated (p  0.05) with ALM: age at menarche, surgical treatment, tumor size, skin involvement, nuclear pleomorphism (NP), and vascular invasion (VI). Uncon[1]ditional logistic regression reveled some independent predictive factors for ALM (p < 0.05): patient’s age, tumor size, NP, VI, and the interaction term tumor size and patient’s age, where tumor size was only predictive for ALM in patients 60 years. Age at diagnosis, tumor size, NP, and VI were independents predictors for ALM. C-erbB-2, cathepsin D, MIB-1, PCNA and p53, and hormonal receptors were not useful ALM predictors in bivariate and multivariate analysis.