Axillary lymph node metastasis is exceedingly rare despite a large mass, a situation infrequent with adenocarcinoma. In four of our patients, axillary lymph node dissection did not reveal malignant involvement. Projected five-year survival. The complex relationship between these variables has led to the formation of several grading systems, none of which could consistently predict the clinical behavior of these tumors. In our present series, only one of four tumors assayed proved to be receptor-rich.
Surgery remains the mainstay of primary treatment.
Some investigators recommend axillary lymph node sampling only if suspicious lymph nodes were detected clinically. In our series, nine patients underwent mastectomy. Of the three patients who were treated primarily by wide excision, one had local relapse and was rendered disease-free by another wide excision, while another patient had distant relapse as well as local recurrence. One remains disease-free. One patient had local relapse only, another had local and distant relapse while two patients had only distant relapses.