Fatty changes and metastases in axillary lymph nodes.

A variety of pathological changes with clinical and prognostic significance is described in axillary lymph nodes removed at mastectomy. We studied 572 lymph nodes removed from 43 women and 1 man during a radical or modified radical mastectomy performed for carcinoma of the breast. We found that in about one-third of the specimens some degree of fat infiltration, or changes, was present; metastases were found in either fatty or nonfatty lymph nodes. We conclude that the presence of fat in axillary lymph nodes does not influence implantation of tumor cells from a primary carcinoma of the breast and has to be reported as an anatomic variant.