Internal mammary node involvement in patients with axilla-negative early breast cancer: a narrative review.
ANZ J Surg
; 93(1-2): 59-64, 2023 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35997283
ABSTRACT
Early breast cancer staging involves radiological and pathological evaluation of the tumour and regional lymph nodes. The internal mammary nodes (IMN) are an important site of possible metastasis and influence disease stage and prognosis. However, the recommendation for routine IMN assessment remains unclear. Internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is associated with increased morbidity and an unknown survival benefit. Furthermore, the IMN are traditionally thought to be involved only synchronous with, or following, axillary node (AXN) metastasis. The aim of this review is to determine the prevalence of IMN metastasis in patients with axilla-negative early breast cancer. A narrative review of studies assessing IMN metastasis was performed. The literature search was completed using the database Medline (Ovid). Twenty-two retrospective studies were identified. The studies included data from SLNB, US, MRI, PET/CT and opportunistic biopsy during free-flap reconstruction (FFR). The prevalence of isolated IMN metastasis ranged from 1.2% to 17.9%.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Breast Neoplasms
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
/
Systematic_reviews
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
ANZ J Surg
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: