Prognostic Influence of Internal Mammary Node Drainage in Patients with Early-stage Breast Cancer

Abstract

The drainage to IMNs is unlikely to have a detrimental effect on patient outcome.

Internal mammary lymph node management – further direction

“…There was no statistically significant difference in overall survival and local or distant recurrence rate. 5 Our findings are in contrast to that of other trials 6 recommending radiotherapy for IMLN; even trials such as MA.20 or EORTC 22922 that focused on axillary lymph node radiotherapy have recommended radiotherapy for IMLN. However, we believe that the difference observed might be due to the difference in the enrollment period.…”

“…We appreciate the letter from Professors Vrana and Gatek regarding our article titled “Internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy: abandon or persist?”. 1 We have been following their publications regarding internal mammary lymph nodes (IMLN) management since the publication of their article titled “Prognostic influence of internal mammary node drainage in patients with early-stage breast cancer” in December 2016 2 and we share their interest on this topic.…”

Case report: recurrent metastatic breast cancer in internal mammary dissection bed discovered at the time of coronary bypass

“…The recurrent breast cancer in this patient did not appear confined to a lymph node, but may have arisen from undetected metastases to the internal mammary lymph nodes (IMN) that run along the LIMA. IMNs are a major pathway of lymphatic drainage for the breast and IMN involvement has been reported in approximately 20% of breast cancers at the time of presentation [3]. Routine biopsy and pathologic evaluation of IMNs is generally not performed due to their deep location.…”

“…Routine biopsy and pathologic evaluation of IMNs is generally not performed due to their deep location. Risk of IMN metastasis correlates with axillary lymph node involvement and increases with the number of involved axillary lymph nodes; however, involvement of IMN alone is not an independent predictor of overall survival or disease free survival [3, 4].…”

Management of Internal Mammary Nodes in Early-Stage Breast Cancer: Response to Comments by De Cicco et al

“…We hypothesized that there may be potential risk factors for IMN metastasis (5). The optimal approach to research this issue would be to perform IMN biopsy in all such patients.…”