This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (16)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Gordon F. Schwartz, MD; Domenico M. D'Ugo, MD; Anne L. Rosenberg, MD

Arch Surg. 1986;121(12):1395-1398.

Abstract
• "Limited" surgery and irradiation have become more popular therapeutic options for women with stage I and stage II breast cancer, and surgical attention to the axilla is part of this approach. To understand the limitations of whatever axillary procedure is recommended, we undertook a retrospective analysis of the records of 277 women who had undergone radical or modified radical mastectomy. Of this group, 127 had metastases to at least one axillary or interpectoral lymph node. Skip metastases occurred in 13% of women with positive nodes; two women (1.6%) had metastases only to level III nodes, and two women had metastases only to interpectoral nodes. The extremely uncommon occurrence of metastases to level III alone or to interpectoral nodes alone, but the greater likelihood of skip metastases to level II, argues for both level I and level II axillary dissection preceding irradiation for patients with invasive carcinomas of the breast.

(Arch Surg 1986;121:1395-1398)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Surgery, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia (Drs Schwartz and Rosenberg); and the Facolta di Medicine E Chirurgia, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome (Dr D'Ugo).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Oct 6, 1986.

Read before the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology, Washington, DC, May 13, 1986.

Reprint requests to 1015 Chestnut St, Suite 510, Philadelphia, PA 19107-4305 (Dr Schwartz).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Total Axillary Lymphadenectomy in the Management of Breast Cancer
Senofsky et al.
Arch Surg 1991;126:1336-1342.
ABSTRACT  

Level I and II Axillary Dissection in the Treatment of Early-Stage Breast Cancer: An Analysis of 259 Consecutive Patients
Siegel et al.
Arch Surg 1990;125:1144-1147.
ABSTRACT