The effect of cerb-b2 expression on axillary lymph node affection in invasive ductal carcinoma patients

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women both in the world and in Turkey. It is the second most common cause of death amongst cancer related deaths. 1 out of 8 women is believed to develop invasive breast cancer throughout their lives. Approximately %90 of invasive breast cancers are ductal invasive breast cancers. There are many prognostic factors of breast cancer such as family history, estrogen and progesteron receptor expression, CerbB-2 oncogen expression, histology, age, gender, stage, axillary lymph node affection etc. Studies conducted showed that axillary lymph node affection is the factor that affects prognosis the most. In the abscence of axillary lymph node affection, 10 year survey increases above %80. Although causes such as tumor diameter, localization, lymphovascular invasion presence, histological grade, CerbB-2 expression presence are believed to be amongst the causes of an increase in axillary lymph node affection, many prior studies showed contradictary results and a clear consensus could not be reached. In our study including 107 patients diagnosed with and got surgical treatment for invasive ductal carcinoma in our general surgery clinic in between the years 2012 and 2016, we studied the effect of high expression of CerbB-2 on axillary lymph node affection in invasive ductal breast cancer. In conclusion, we found that high expression of CerbB-2 significantly increased axillary lymph node affection rates. This result implies that CerbB-2 expression increases axillary lmyph node affection rates and may be associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer.