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. 2013 Apr 23;8(4):e61410.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061410. Print 2013.

Prognostic value of metastatic axillary lymph node ratio for Chinese breast cancer patients

San-Gang Wu  1 , Zhen-Yu He, Qun Li, Jia-Yuan Sun, Feng-Yan Li, Qin Lin, Huan-Xin Lin, Xun-Xing Guan
Affiliations

Prognostic value of metastatic axillary lymph node ratio for Chinese breast cancer patients

San-Gang Wu et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: The prevalence of breast cancer varies among countries and regions. This retrospective study investigated the prognostic value of the lymph node ratio (LNR) compared with the number of positive lymph nodes (pN) in Chinese breast cancer patients.

Methods: The medical records of female breast cancer patients (N = 2591) were retrospectively evaluated. The association of LNR and TMN staging system were compared with respect to overall, disease-free, and distant metastasis-free survival.

Results: Out of 2591 patients, 2495 underwent modified radical surgery and 96 received breast conserving surgery. All patients had adjuvant chemotherapy following surgery. The median follow up period 66.9 months (range 5-168 months). The 5-year and 10-year overall survival rates were 89.3% and 78.8%, respectively, and 5-year disease-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival rates were 81.6% and 83.5%, respectively. Univariate analysis indicated that in general T, pN, LNR, as well as tumor expression of the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 were associated with overall, disease-free, and distant metastasis-free survival (all P-values <0.05). Mutlivariate analysis found pN stage and LNR were independent predictors of overall, disease-free, and distant metastasis-free survival (all P-values <0.001). If pN stage and LNR were both included in a multivariate analysis, LNR was still an independent prognostic factor for overall, disease-free, and distant metastasis-free survival (all P-values <0.001).

Conclusion: Our findings support the use of LNR as a predictor of survival in Chinese patients with breast cancer, and that LNR is superior to pN stage in determining disease prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Kaplain-Meier cumulative survival curves for (A) overall survival, (B) disease-free survival, and (C) distant metastasis-free survival.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Kaplain-Meier cumulative survival curves by LNR for (A) overall survival (B) disease-free survival, and (C) distant metastasis-free survival.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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