Clinicopathological features of breast cancer patients with internal mammary and/or supraclavicular lymph node recurrence without distant metastasis.

Background: Internal mammary and/or supraclavicular (IM-SC) lymph node (LN) recurrence without distant metastasis (DM) in patients with breast cancer is rare, and there have been few reports on its clinical outcomes.

Methods: We enrolled 4237 patients with clinical stage I-IIIC breast cancer treated between January 2007 and December 2012. Clinicopathological features of patients with IM-SC LN recurrence and patients with DM were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: With a median follow-up time 78 (range, 13-125) months after the primary operation, 14 (0.3%) had IM-SC LN recurrence without DM and 274 (6.5%) had DM at the first recurrence among 4237 patients. No statistical differences were found in the baseline characteristics of the primary tumor between the two groups. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate after recurrence in patients with IM-SC LN recurrence was 51% compared with 27% in patients with DM (P = 0.040). In patients with IM-SC LN recurrence, clinically positive axillary LN at diagnosis and pathologically positive axillary LN at primary surgery were poor prognostic factors for distant disease-free survival (DDFS) (P = 0.004 and 0.007, respectively). Clinical and pathological axillary nodal status at primary surgery was associated with OS (P = 0.011 and 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: Patients with IM-SC LN recurrence without DM who had no clinical and pathological axillary LNs involved at primary surgery had a favorable prognosis. A larger validation study is required.