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Fatty changes and metastases in axillary lymph nodes
Author(s) -
Werbin Nahum
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/jso.2930250302
Subject(s) - lymph , medicine , axillary lymph nodes , radical mastectomy , modified radical mastectomy , pathological , breast carcinoma , carcinoma , infiltration (hvac) , metastasis , mastectomy , mammary gland , axilla , pathology , axillary nodes , breast cancer , cancer , physics , thermodynamics
A variety of pathological changes with clinical and prognostic significance is described in axillary lymph nodes removed at mastectomy. We studied 572 lymph nodes removed from 43 women and 1 man during a radical or modified radical mastectomy performed for carcinoma of the breast. We found that in about one‐third of the specimens some degree of fat infiltration, or changes, was present; metastases were found in either fatty or nonfatty lymph nodes. We conclude that the presence of fat in axillary lymph nodes does not influence implantation of tumor cells from a primary carcinoma of the breast and has to be reported as an anatomic variant.