Breast cancer survival in relation to the metastatic tumor burden in axillary lymph nodes.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic significance of lymph node micrometastases in patients with breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: Between September 2000 and January 2004, 3,369 patients with breast cancer were included in a prospective cohort. According to their lymph node status, they were classified in the following four groups: 2,383 were node negative, 107 had isolated tumor cells, 123 had micrometastases, and 756 had macrometastases.

The impact of RNA standardization and heterogeneous gene expression on the results of cDNA array of human breast carcinoma.

cDNA microarray is an established technique. However, difficulties such as handling tissue samples under RNase-free conditions, the heterogeneous tumor composition, i.e.