Background Internal mammary and/or supraclavicular (IM–SC) lymph node (LN) recurrence without distant metastasis (DM) in patients with breast cancer is rare, and there have been few reports on its clinical outcomes. Methods We enrolled 4237 patients with clinical stage I–IIIC breast cancer treated between January 2007 and December 2012. Clinicopathological features of patients with IM–SC LN recurrence and patients with DM were retrospectively reviewed. Results With a median follow-up time 78 (range, 13–125) months after the primary operation, 14 (0.3%) had IM–SC LN recurrence without DM and 274 (6.5%) had DM at the first recurrence among 4237 patients. No statistical differences were found in the baseline characteristics of the primary tumor between the two groups. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate after recurrence in patients with IM–SC LN recurrence was 51% compared with 27% in patients with DM (P = 0.040). In patients with IM–SC LN recurrence, clinically positive axillary LN at diagnosis and pathologically positive axillary LN at primary surgery were poor prognostic factors for distant disease-free survival (DDFS) (P = 0.004 and 0.007, respectively). Clinical and pathological axillary nodal status at primary surgery was associated with OS (P = 0.011 and 0.001, respectively). Conclusions Patients with IM–SC LN recurrence without DM who had no clinical and pathological axillary LNs involved at primary surgery had a favorable prognosis. A larger validation study is required.

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Background: It is unknown whether patients with cytologically proven axillary node-positive breast cancer who achieve axillary pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) have comparable prognosis to patients with axillary pathological node-negative disease (pN-) without NAC. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients with cytologically proven axillary node-positive disease who received NAC and those with axillary pN- without NAC for control between January 2007 and December 2012. We compared outcomes according to response in the axilla to NAC and between patients with axillary pCR and matched pairs with axillary pN- without NAC using propensity scores. Results: We included 596 patients with node-positive breast cancer who received NAC. The median follow-up period was 64 months. Patients with axillary pCR showed significantly better distant disease-free survival (DDFS) and overall survival (OS) than patients with residual axillary disease (both p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in DDFS and OS between patients with axillary pCR and matched pairs with axillary pN- without NAC. Conclusion: Axillary pCR was associated with improved prognosis. Patients with axillary pCR and matched pairs with axillary pN- without NAC had comparable outcomes. This information will be useful when considering the intensity of follow-up and adjuvant therapy.

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