Predictive factors of axillary lymph node involvement in Tunisian women with early breast cancer

Abstract

Background: Axillary lymph node involvement (ALNI) is associated with an increased risk of local recurrence and poor prognosis in early breast cancer. The determination of the risk of positive axillary lymph node contributes to therapeutic decisions.Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify clinicopathological predictive factors of axillary lymph node metastases in patients with early breast cancer.Methods: We included patients with clinical T0, T1 andT2 invasive breast carcinoma who underwent resection of the primary tumor and axillary staging by sentinel lymph node biopsy and/or axillar lymph node dissection between 2012 and 2018.Results: Of the 135patients included, 41.5% had ALNI. Regarding univariate analysis, clinical factors correlated with positive ALNM were clinical tumour size>30mm, clinical tumour stage, clinical number of tumours, clinical axillary nodal status and nodal status on ultrasound. Pathologic factors associated with nodal involvement were pathologic tumour stage, tumour grade SBR, number of foci, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion and Ki67>20%.In multivariate logistic regression, clinical axillary nodal status, pathologic tumour stage and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) remained as independent predictors of ALNI.Conclusions: Based on these results, we suggest that clinical axillary nodal status, pathologic tumour stage and LVI are predictive factors for ALNM in Tunisian women with early breast cancer.