[Impact of stages of axillary lymph nodes and pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy on the survival of breast cancer patients].

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the relevance between lymph node status and pathological response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and survival in breast cancer patients.

METHODS

The clinicopathological data of 653 needle biopsy proved breast cancer patients, who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery in our hospital from July 1998 to April 2012, were retrospective analyzed.

RESULTS

The median follow up time was 59.3 months. The 653 cases were classified into ypN0 (242 cases), ypN1 (182 cases), ypN2 (135 cases), and ypN3 (94 cases) stages, and the 5-year overall survival rates in the four groups were 93.4%, 93.4%, 87.4%, and 83.0%, respectively. The Log rank test showed a significant difference in the overall survival rates between the ypN0, ypN1, ypN2 stages and ypN3 stage (P=0.046). No significant differences were observed between the disease free survival (DFS) rates in the four groups (P>0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that the postoperative pathological response of metastatic lymph nodes was a major prognostic factor affecting the overall survival and disease-free survival (RR=1.051, P=0.007; RR=1.028, P=0.028).

CONCLUSION

The stage and pathological response of axillary lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy are effective indicators for predicting the OS and DFS in breast cancer patients.