Lvi

Hi there

Lymph/vascular are not reported on biopsy reported as it is not applicable..

Pathology from surgery may not note LVI iif findings were negative.

sometimes however it may be listed under findings

Example:

Lymph/vascular Present Or not present

Hope that helps.

I'm confused as to why LVI is is not applicable, from what I have read in recent journals, LVI & High grade is equivalent to having 1-2 positive nodes. I just finished active treatment in Feb this year and I am really struggling to get my head round things.

• In early stage breast cancer, histological grade has prognostic value that is equivalent to that of lymph node status (19, 22, 49) and greater than that of tumor size (19, 22, 50, 51). The prognostic value of grade is more important in the sub-groups of breast cancer such as patients with lymph node-negative ER-positive/HER2-negative tumors or in patients with low volume lymph node metastatic disease (pN1) where the decision on use of chemotherapy cannot be determined based on risk associate with more advanced tumor stage (41,47,52). In addition to patient outcome, histological grade is associated with other clinicopathological prognostic variables such as lymph node stage, tumor size, lymphovascular invasion (22, 53-55) and expression of biomarkers of prognostic and predictive value such as hormone receptor, HER2, p53, "basal" markers and P-cadherin and prognostic gene signatures (56, 57)

The Prognostic Significance of Lymphovascular Invasion in Invasive Breast Carcinoma Rakha et al (2012)

Definite LVI is associated with a poorer outcome in terms of shorter BCSS (breast cancer-specific survival) and shorter distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). This prognostic value is independent of other prognostic variables, such as patient age, LN status, histologic grade, tumor size, ER status, and systemic therapy. LVI provides independent prognostic information not only in the whole series but also in the clinically relevant subgroups, in which decisions about systemic therapy need to be determined (pT1N0M0 and pT2N0M0). It is noteworthy that, in patients with LN-negative tumors, LVI is an independent, high-risk criterion that, by itself, can be considered sufficient to move patients into a high risk group, because LVI indicates a risk equivalent to that indicated by the presence of 1 or 2 positive LNs (ie, prognostic value equivalent to a change from pN0 to pN1) and to that indicated by a change in 1 size category (from pT1 to pT2).

Hi There! I have just become present on these boards and until today, I haven’t heard of LVI. I looked back and it was not mentioned on my biopsy or path report I just got back after surgery. Should I be hopeful it wasn’t present? I was relieved after my sentinel nodes looked negative. So many questions. Thank you

badluck - yes, feel good about it. I’m not an expert, but my breast surgeon said that LVI is an invasion of cancer cells in blood vessels and/or the lymphatic system, which can increase risk of node involvement and/or chance of metastasis.

Any silver lining is good!