Table 3.
Age and clinicopathological characteristics of all patients at Centre 1 (first column) with a successful microbubble/CEUS SLN core biopsy before primary surgical treatment
| Volume of disease at the end of surgical treatment (microbubble/CEUS false negative core biopsy) | ||||
| Centre 1 | All patients | Micrometastasis/ITC | Low (<2 LN macrometastases) | High (2 or more LN macrometastases) |
| Total number of patients | 816 | 37 | 46 | 12 |
| 15 (41%) ALND | 34 (74%) ALND | 12 (100%) ALND | ||
| Median age in years (range) | 61 (30–94) | 61 (42–89) | 55 (32–90) | 53 (36–69) |
| Receptor status | ||||
| ER positive | 707 (87%) | 32 (86%) | 40 (87%) | 11 (92%) |
| ER unknown | 4 (0.4%) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Her-2 positive | 79 (10%) | 3 (8%) | 2 (4%) | 1 (8%) |
| Her-2 not recorded | 13 (1.6%) | 0 | 2 (4%) | 0 |
| ER-/PR-/Her-2- | 72 (10%) | 4 (10.8%) | 4 (9%) | 0 |
| ER-/PR-/HER-2+ | 28 (3%) | 1 (2.7%) | 1 (2%) | 1 (8%) |
| Invasive tumour size | ||||
| DCIS + microinvasion | 5 (0.6%) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T1 | 472 (58%) | 19 (51%) | 17 (37%) | 4 (33%) |
| T2 | 199 (24%) | 10 (27%) | 18 (39%) | 5 (42%) |
| T3 | 29 (4%) | 5 (14%) | 3 (7%) | 1 (8%) |
| Multifocal | 111 (14%) | 3 (8%) | 8 (17%) | 2 (17%) |
| Unknown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tumour grade | ||||
| Grade 1 | 180 (22%) | 6 (16%) | 7 (15%) | 4 (33%) |
| Grade 2 | 392 (48%) | 20 (54%) | 21 (46%) | 6 (50%) |
| Grade 3 | 209 (26%) | 11 (30%) | 14 (30%) | 1 (8%) |
| Mixed grade | 29 (4%) | 0 | 4 (9%) | 1 (8%) |
| Unknown | 1 (0.1%) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tumour type | ||||
| IDC | 660 (81%) | 23 (62%) | 38 (83%) | 11 (92%) |
| ILC | 103 (13%) | 11 (30%) | 6 (13%) | 1 (8%) |
| Other | 29 (4%) | 1 (3%) | 1 (2%) | 0 |
| Mixed | 17 (2%) | 2 (5%) | 1 (2%) | 0 |
| Unknown | 2 (0.2%) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
ALND, axillary lymph node dissection; CEUS,contrast enhanced ultrasound; DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ; ER, estrogenreceptor; Her2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; IDC, invasive ductalcarcinoma; ILC, invasive lobular carcinoma; ITC, isolated LN, lymph nodes; PR, progesteronereceptor.
Centre 1 patients with false negative microbubble/CEUS SLN core biopsies subdivided into micrometastases (<2 mm)/ITC, low volume metastases and high volume metastases identified at the end of primary surgical treatment. Data are expressed as n (%).