Axillary Lymph Nodes Metastasis of Various Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes and Its Prognostic Analysis

Objective To analyze the axillary lymph nodes metastasis of various breast cancer molecular subtypes and its prognosis.Methods Molecular subtypes of 125 cases of operable breast cancer diagnosed and treated between January 2005 and December 2007 were categorized,and the axillary lymph nodes metastasis of these types was analyzed.At the same time,we analyzed its prognosis status with the results of the follow-up.Results Among the 125 cases,there were 63 luminal A cases in which 16(25.4%) were found to be axillary lymph nodes metastasis.Among the 19 luminal B cases,there were 7(36.8%) axillary lymph nodes metastases.There were 11 cases(42.3%) of axillary lymph nodes metastasis in the 26 cases of HER-2(+) subtype.In the 17 cases of basal-like subtye,9(52.9%) were axillary lymph nodes metastases.As for the axillary lymph nodes metastatic rate,only basal-like subtype was higher than luminal A subtype with a statistically significant difference(P0.05).Differences between all other subtypes were not significant(P0.05).The molecular subtypes did not differ in tumor size(P0.05) according to the result of chi-square test.During the 2 to 5-year follow-up,8 of the 125 patients were found to have local tumor recurrence or distant metastatic disease,which included 2 luminal B cases,5 HER-2(+) subtype cases,and 1 basal-like subtype case.In those 8 patients,3 died of liver metastases and 5 survived and are still accepting treatment now.Conclusion Molecular subtyping can provide important information of axillary lymph nodes metastatic status.HER-2 over-expression and basal-like subtype have a poor prognosis,which is an important basis for individual treatment of breast cancer in the future.