Correlation analysis between molecular subtypes of early stage breast cancer and the metastasis of non-sentinel lymph node

Objective To discuss the correlation between molecular subtypes of early stage breast cancer patients with positive sentinel lymph nodes and the metastasis of non-sentinel lymph nodes, and find out the factors predicting the metastasis of non-sentinel lymph nodes. Methods The clinical data of 124 female breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node positive were retrospectively analyzed, and the patients were treated with axillary lymph node dissection. And the correlations were analyzed by single factor analysis and multiple factor Logistic regression analysis. Results Among the 124 patients, non-sentinel lymph node metastasis was in 45 cases (36.3%), and only sentinel lymph node positive was in 79 cases (63.7%). The single factor analysis result showed that the age ≤ 35 years, number of sentinel lymph node positive ≥ 2, macrometastasis of sentinel lymph node had correlation with the metastasis of non-sentinel lymph node (P 0.05). The multiple factor Logistic regression analysis result showed that the number of sentinel lymph node positive and circumstance of sentinel lymph node positive lesions were the independent risk factors of the non-sentinel lymph node metastasis in patients with sentinel lymph node positive (OR= 4.589 and 2.948; P<0.01 or<0.05). Conclusions The circumstance of sentinel lymph node positive lesions and number of sentinel lymph node positive are the independent risk factors of the non-sentinel lymph node metastasis, but the molecular type is not correlated with the metastasis of non-sentinel lymph node. Predicting non-sentinel lymph node metastasis should be combined with clinical and pathological factors. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Lymphatic metastasis; Early diagnosis; Molecular typing; Retrospective studies