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Background The association of isolated tumor cells and micrometastases in regional lymph nodes with the clinical outcome of breast cancer is unclear.
Methods We identified all patients in the Netherlands who underwent a sentinel-node biopsy for breast cancer before 2006 and had breast cancer with favorable primary-tumor characteristics and isolated tumor cells or micrometastases in the regional lymph nodes. Patients with node-negative disease were randomly selected from the years 2000 and 2001. The primary end point was disease-free survival.
Results We identified 856 patients with node-negative disease who had not received systemic adjuvant therapy (the node-negative, no-adjuvant-therapy cohort), 856 patients with isolated tumor cells or micrometastases who had not received systemic adjuvant therapy (the node-positive, no-adjuvant-therapy cohort), and 995 patients with isolated tumor cells or micrometastases who had received such treatment (the node-positive, adjuvant-therapy cohort). The median follow-up was 5.1 years. The adjusted hazard ratio for disease events among patients with isolated tumor cells who did not receive systemic therapy, as compared with women with node-negative disease, was 1.50 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15 to 1.94); among patients with micrometastases, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.56 (95% CI, 1.15 to 2.13). Among patients with isolated tumor cells or micrometastases, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.57 (95% CI, 0.45 to 0.73) in the node-positive, adjuvant-therapy cohort, as compared with the node-positive, no-adjuvant-therapy cohort.
Conclusions Isolated tumor cells or micrometastases in regional lymph nodes were associated with a reduced 5-year rate of disease-free survival among women with favorable early-stage breast cancer who did not receive adjuvant therapy. In patients with isolated tumor cells or micrometastases who received adjuvant therapy, disease-free survival was improved.
Source Information
From the Division of Medical Oncology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht (M.B., V.C.G.T.-H.); Comprehensive Cancer Center East (M.B., J.A.A.M.D.) and the Divisions of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and HTA (J.A.A.M.D., G.F.B., E.M.M.A.) and Pathology (P.B.), Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen; the Division of Pathology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht (C.H.M.D., P.J.D.); the Division of Medical Oncology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden (J.W.R.N.); the Division of Surgery, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam (E.J.T.R.); and the Divisions of Medical Oncology (C.S.) and Surgery (M.B.E.M.-P.), Erasmus Medical Center–Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam — all in the Netherlands.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Tjan-Heijnen at the Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, the Netherlands, or at vcg.tjan.heijnen{at}mumc.nl.
Related Letters:
Isolated Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer
Lyman G. H., Peppercorn J., Roukos D. H., Sonke G. S., Linn S. C., Tjan-Heijnen V. C.G., de Boer M., Bult P.
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N Engl J Med 2009;
361:1994-1996, Nov 12, 2009.
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