Factors influencing the outcome of breast cancer patients with 10 or more metastasized axillary lymph nodes

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate prognostic factors in breast cancer patients with metastasis of ten or more lymph nodes (pathologic N3a). Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of the cases of 304 breast cancer patients with pathologic N3a disease who had undergone definitive surgery between 1986 and 2006, and investigated the correlation between clinicopathologic characteristics and treatment outcomes. Results With a median follow-up period of 55 months, the 5-year disease-free survival rate was 42.9% and the overall survival rate was 57.8%. Univariate analysis showed that the factors associated with poor disease-free survival were: age < 35 years ( P = 0.001), history of neoadjuvant chemotherapy ( P