Effects of primary systemic chemotherapy on metastatic lymph nodes of breast cancer

Abstract

From January 2001 to June 2006, surgical procedures were conducted on 115 cases (87 cases of positive lymph node metastasis cases) belonging to stage II to stage III, excluding T4d who had underwent primary systemic chemotherapy supplemented with FEC following mainly weekly paclitaxel. The number of cases with the primary focus showing a histologic effect of Grade 3 was 24 (20.9%) out of 115 cases. On the other hand, the number of cases whose lymph node metastases became histologically negative was 47 (54.0%) out of 87 cases of positive lymph node metastases. As the above result indicates that primary systemic chemotherapy can be expected to produce effect also on metastatic lymph nodes greater than that on the primary focus, it is considered that metastatic lymph nodes can also be a new target of primary systemic chemotherapy.