article on ILC vs IDC and isolated tumor cells

jojo9999

"Sentinel Node Biopsy and Isolated Tumor Cells in Invasive Lobular vs Ductal Breast Cancer" Here is the link to the abstract. The artilce is gated

http://www.clinical-breast-cancer.com/article/S1526-8209(16)30082-9/abstract.

Here is the text of the abstract. Looks like they found a signif. difference between ILC and IDC for ITC's (? but not micromets or (and there is an obvious typo) "macromets" ?)

Background

Sentinel node (SN) biopsy is standard of care for axillary staging in invasive breast cancer. The introduction of SN biopsy with an extensive pathology examination, next to the introduction of the 2002 TNM classification led to different axillary classification outcomes. We evaluated the effect of axillary staging procedures and subsequent axillary nodal status, in patients with invasive lobular (ILC) compared to ductal carcinoma (IDC) between 1998-2013.

Methods

The use of SN biopsy and the distribution of nodal status were analyzed in patients with T1-2 ILC and IDC. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the independent effect of histologic type on the probability of having ITCs, micrometastases and micrometastases.

Results

In total 89,971 women were diagnosed: 10,146 with ILC (11%) and 79,825 with IDC (89%). Patients who underwent SN biopsy were more frequently diagnosed with ITCs compared to those who underwent an axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) only (OR 8.8, 95% CI 7.0-11.2). In 2013, the proportion of patients with ITCs in the axillary nodes was 8% in those with ILC and 4.4% in patients with IDC. Patients with ILC were significantly more likely to have ITCs in their axillary lymph nodes than patients with IDC (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.6-2.0).

Conclusion

With the introduction of SN biopsy and introduction of the renewed 2002 TNM classification, patients with ILC are more frequently diagnosed with ITCs, compared to patients with IDC. The clinical consequence of this finding has to be established in further research.