Table 7.

Incidence of IM Drainage and Pathologically Confirmed IM Nodal Metastases in Published Series of Breast Cancer Patients

First Author	Year	IM Drainage on LSG	IMN+	IMN+/ALN−
Johnson28	2000	12.5% (10/80)	30% (3/10)	0%
Noguchi29	2000	12.2% (5/41)	10.5% (2/19)	N/A
Dupont30	2001	N/A	16.7% (5/30)	10% (3/30)
van der Ent31	2001	25.4% (65/256)	26.8% (11/41)	7.3% (3/41)
Uren9	2001	45% (71/159)ab
Galimberti11	2002	N/A	8.8% (14/160)c	2.5% (4/160)
Tanis12	2002	19.1% (105/549)d	18.9% (17/90)	8.9% (8/90)
Estourgie13	2003	21.7% (150/691)	16.9% (22/130)	6.9% (9/130)
Farrus32	2004	13.8% (31/225)	14.3% (2/14)	0%
Mansel20	2004	8.8% (62/707)	12.9% (4/31)	6.5% (2/31)
Paredes21	2005	14.1% (55/391)	12.5% (4/32)	0%
Carcoforo33	2006	12.8% (95/741)	15.4% (10/65)	4.6% (3/65)
Madsen4	2007	21.7% (109/502)	23.5% (20/85)	4.7% (4/85)
Veronesi34	2008	40.8% (254/623)e	10.3% (68/663)	2.6% (17/663)
Avisar35	2008	N/A	25.0% (7/28)	7.1% (2/28)
Coombs36	2009	18.0% (88/490)b	22.2% (20/90)	13.3% (12/90)
Heuts37	2009	19.4% (196/1008)	22% (31/139)	29% (9/31)
Domenech-Vilardell38	2009	9.0% (82/914)	13.6% (6/44)	9.1% (4/44)
Van Esser39	2011	19.0% (426/2203)	25.0% (4/16)f	6.2% (1/16)

IM indicates internal mammary; LSG, lymphoscintigraphy; IMN, internal mammary lymph node; +, positive for metastasis; ALN, axillary lymph node; −, negative for metastasis; N/A, not available.

^aIM node biopsy was not performed in this series

^bSeries used antimony labeled sulfur colloid, rest of series used nanocolloid or sulfur colloid

^cIM sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed only in patients with medial tumor or who demonstrated IM drainage on LSG

^dOne patient had drainage to the contralateral IM chain.

^ePatients has mostly inner quadrant tumors (520/663)

^fIM sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed only in patients who demonstrated IM chain drainage only (25/2203) and was successful in 16.