Investigation of mediastinal calcified lymphadenopathy in computerized tomography in breast cancer cases

Aim: Although the mucinous subtype of breast cancer is uncommon, it may cause mediastinal calcified lymphadenopathy. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the frequency of calcified mediastinal LAP in patients with breast cancer on computed tomography and to investigate the relationship between the presence of mediastinal calcified lymphadenopathy and breast cancer. Method: The tomography images of 200 breast cancer patients and 200 female patients (control) without cancer who were sent to the Ministry of Health Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital Radiology Clinic between October 2017 and November 2018 to have thorax computed tomography were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The average age of the participants was 52.15 ± 14.23 years. There are 63 patinets with mediastinal calcified LAP on CT. Mediastinal calcified LAP rate on CT (n = 52; 26%) was significantly higher in patients with breast cancer than those without breast cancer (n = 11; 5.5%). Of those with breast cancer and mediastinal calcified LAP on CT, 38 had distant organ metastasis, while 14 had no distant organ metastasis. The average LAP size was found to be 15.22 ± 3.92 mm.There were 35 patients with LAP size between 10-15 mm, 21 patients between 15-20 mm and 7 with > 20 mm. No significant relationship was found between breast cancer and mediastinal LAP size. Conclusion: On CT, mediastinal calcified LAP was more than in patient with breast cancer than those without breast cancer. No significant relationship was found between breast cancer and mediastinal LAP size. There was no significant relationship between breast cancer and the rates of subcarinal, lower paratracheal, upper paratracheal and other stations. In conclusion, there is no significant relationship between breast cancer and LAP localization.