Purpose: The aim of this study was evaluate predictive value of preoperative sonography for the evaluation of axillary lymph node metastases in breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The study included 226 patients who underwent curative surgery between Jan. 2008 Dec. 2010 at Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital. We analyzed preoperative sonographic findings of axillary lymph nodes and compared the finding with postoperative histologic results of axillary lymph nodes evaluation. Results: When we compared preoperative sonographic evaluation of metastatic lymph node with final histological results, the sensitivity of sonographic evaluation was 81.3% and specificity was 77.5%. False positive rate was 10.7% and false negative rate was 35.8%. The accuracy of preoperative sonographic evaluation of lymph node metastasis was 78.7%. Primary tumor size was the only significant predictive factor for lymph node metastasis on multivariate analysis. Conclusion: preoperative sonographic evaluation of axillary lymph node had limited value with moderate accuracy. High false-negative rate of preoperative sonography indicates that preoperative sonography cannot replace intraoperative sentinel node evaluation at this stage.

Purpose: Significant proportion of breast cancer patients with locoregional recurrence eventually die of their disease. This study was performed to investigate the risk factors associated with locoregional recurrence of breast cancer after breast conserving surgery. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 302 patients with breast cancer who underwent breast conserving surgery and analyzed the association between locoregional recurrences and clinico-pathological factors of each patients. Results: The 26 of 302 patients (8.6%) developed locoregional recurrence during a median follow-up of 35.5 months. 18 patients (5.9%) had local recurrence, 6 patients (2.0%) had regional recurrence and 2 patients (0.7%) had locoregional recurrence. On univariate analysis, positive margin (p<0.0001), HER2/neu positive, extensive intraductal component, multiplicity were statistically significant risk factors for locoregional recurrence of breast cancer. On multivariate analysis, positive margin status, HER2/neu positivity and multiplicity were significantly associated with locoregional recurrence after breast conserving surgery. Conclusion: Our study showed that adequate resection margin is the most important to reduce locoregional recurrence of breast cancer after breast conserving surgery. In addition, HER2/neu amplification or multiplicity increased the locoregional recurrence rate in breast cancer.

No abstract