Occult Axillary Lymph Node Metastases Discovered by Serial Section in Node Negative Breast Cancer

ANANT KARALAK, M.D.*, PATCHARIN HOMCHA-EM, B.Sc.*

Affiliation : * Division of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, Bangkok I 0400, Thailand.

AbstractSerial sectioning of the axillary lymph nodes from lymph node negative breast cancer patients is presented. All patients were admitted between 1997-1998 and underwent mastectomy and axillary node dissection. The histological examination revealed micrometastases in 5 (I Oo/c) of 50 breast cancer subjects. The detection of these micrometastases in lymph nodes may identify a high-risk node-negative population. The time and money that was spent to detect the micro- metastases was too high to perform it in every case. The clinician should be aware of the occult micrometastases in node-negative cases.

Keywords : Occult Metastases, Breast Cancer, Axillary Lymph Node

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