AUTHOR=Wang Zhe , Chong Wei , Zhang Huikun , Liu Xiaoli , Zhao Yawen , Guo Zhifang , Fu Li , Ma Yongjie , Gu Feng
TITLE=Breast Cancer Patients With Positive Apical or Infraclavicular/Ipsilateral Supraclavicular Lymph Nodes Should Be Excluded in the Application of the Lymph Node Ratio System
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
VOLUME=10
YEAR=2022
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2022.784920
DOI=10.3389/fcell.2022.784920
ISSN=2296-634X
ABSTRACT=Aim: Increasing studies have demonstrated lymph node ratio (LNR) to be an accurate prognostic indicator in breast cancer and an alternative to pN staging; however, the AJCC-TNM staging system classified apical or infraclavicular/ipsilateral supraclavicular lymph node-positive (APN(+)) patients with a worse prognosis as the pN3 stage. Until now, different reports on LNR in breast cancer have ignored this possibility. Consequently, it is necessary to discuss the role of APN(+) patients in the LNR system to obtain a precise LNR that predicts the prognosis accurately.
Materials and Methods: We collected data on 10,120 breast cancer patients, including 3,936 lymph node-positive patients (3,283 APN(−) and 653 APN(+) patients), who visited our hospital from 2007 to 2012. Then we applied X-tile analysis to calculate cut-off values and conduct survival analysis and multivariate analysis to evaluate patients’ prognosis.
Results: We confirmed that some APN(+) patients were mis-subgrouped according to previously reported LNR, indicating that APN(+) patients should be excluded in the application of LNR to predict prognosis. Then we applied X-tile analysis to calculate two cut-off values (0.15 and 0.34) for LNR-APN(−) patients and conducted survival analysis and found that LNR-APN(−) staging was superior to pN staging in predicting the prognosis of APN(−) breast cancer patients.
Conclusion: From this study, we conclude that excluding APN(+) patients is the most necessary condition for effective implementation of the LNR system. LNR-APN(−) staging could be a more comprehensive approach in predicting prognosis and guiding clinicians to provide accurate and appropriate treatment.