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Abstract

Axillary lymph nodes metastases (ALM) are considered to be the most important prognostic factor for breast cancer. Data from 306 infiltrating ductal carcinomas consecutively diagnosed and treated over a period of 20 months were analised through a case-control study to assess predictive factors for the ocurrence of ALM. Bivariate analysis showed that some of variables were statistically associated (p <= 0.05) with ALM: age at menarche, surgical treatment, tumor size, skin involvement, nuclear pleomorphism (NP), and vascular invasion (VI). Unconditional logistic regression reveled some independent predictive factors for ALM (p < 0.05): patient's age, tumor size, NP, VI, and the interaction term tumor size and patient's age, where tumor size was only predictive for ALM in patients >=60 years. Age at diagnosis, tumor size, NP, and VI were independents predictors for ALM. C-erbB-2, cathepsin D, MIB-1, PCNA and p53, and hormonal receptors were not useful ALM predictors in bivariate and multivariate analysis.

Key words: breast neoplasms; infiltrating duct carcinoma; biological tumor markers; neoplasms metastasis; lymph nodes