Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Sep;14(3):198-203.
doi: 10.4048/jbc.2011.14.3.198. Epub 2011 Sep 29.

The role of lymphovascular invasion as a prognostic factor in patients with lymph node-positive operable invasive breast cancer

Young Ju Song  1 , Sun Hyoung Shin, Jin Seong Cho, Min Ho Park, Jung Han Yoon, Young Jong Jegal
Affiliations

The role of lymphovascular invasion as a prognostic factor in patients with lymph node-positive operable invasive breast cancer

Young Ju Song et al. J Breast Cancer. 2011 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is an important prognostic factor in patients with lymph node-negative patients with invasive breast cancer. However, the prognostic value of LVI it is unclear and controversial about its prognostic value in patients with lymph node-positive breast cancer patients. So, we report the an analysis of the prognostic significance of LVI in a large cohort study of patients with lymph node-positive patients with invasive breast cancer.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 967 patients with invasive breast cancer that had undergone surgical treatment at our hospital, from January 2004 to December 2007. Among these thempatients, 349 patients with lymph node-positive breast cancer patients are were included in this study. We evaluated clinical and pathological data in these patients, we compared with 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival between an LVI-present group and an LVI-absent group.

Results: The median follow-up was 48 months (range, 12-78 months), and the mean age of the patients was 48 years (range, 23-78 years). LVI was present in 192 patients (55%) of with tumors and was associated with age ≤40 years (p=0.009), high histologichistological grade (p=0.007), estrogen receptor status (p=0.001), tumor size ≥2 cm (p<0.001), and number of involved lymph nodes (p<0.001), but not with progesterone receptor status, HER2 status, p53 status, or tumor multiplicity. LVI was a significant independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival (p<0.001) and overall survival (p=0.006). By multivariate analysis revealed that LVI (p=0.003), number of involved lymph nodes (≥4; p=0.005), and high histological grade (II and III; p=0.02) was were an independent significant predictors of disease-free survival and overall survival in the whole group of patients.

Conclusion: In this case, we demonstrated that LVI is a significant predictor of poor prognosis in patients with lymph node-positive patients with primary invasive breast cancer, LVI is a significant predictive predictor value of poor prognosis. So, LVI should be considered in the therapeutic strategy as a decision making tool in the adjuvant chemotherapy setting.

Keywords: Breast neoplasms; Lymph node metastasis; Lymphovascular invasion; Prognostic factor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overall survival and disease-free survival of whole patients. (A) Overall survival curves are shown according to presence or absence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI). (B) Disease-free survival curves according to presence or absence of LVI are shown.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Metastasis-free survival of whole patients. Metastasis-free survival curves are shown according to presence or absence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Clark GM. Prognostic and predictive factors. In: Harris JR, Lippman ME, Morrow M, Osborne CK, editors. Diseases of the Breast. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000. pp. 489–514.
    1. Woo CS, Silberman H, Nakamura SK, Ye W, Sposto R, Colburn W, et al. Lymph node status combined with lymphovascular invasion creates a more powerful tool for predicting outcome in patients with invasive breast cancer. Am J Surg. 2002;184:337–340. - PubMed
    1. Davis BW, Gelber R, Goldhirsch A, Hartmann WH, Hollaway L, Russell I, et al. Prognostic significance of peritumoral vessel invasion in clinical trials of adjuvant therapy for breast cancer with axillary lymph node metastasis. Hum Pathol. 1985;16:1212–1218. - PubMed
    1. Page DL, Anderson TJ, Connelly JL, Schnitt SF. Miscellaneous features of carcinoma. In: Page DL, Anderson TJ, editors. Diagnostic Histopathology of the Breast. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1987. pp. 283–284.
    1. Fisher B, Bauer M, Wickerham DL, Redmond CK, Fisher ER, Cruz AB, et al. Relation of number of positive axillary nodes to the prognosis of patients with primary breast cancer. An NSABP update. Cancer. 1983;52:1551–1557. - PubMed