[Postoperative axillary-lymph-node recurrence in breast cancer patients]

We investigated 13 cases of axillary-lymph-node recurrence, who received an operation for an early stage breast cancer. They are the first recurrence of only regional without metastatic disease; the 4 patients, who had sentinel-lymph-node by biopsy at first operation, received an axillary lymph adenectomy, and 5 patients received re-lymph-adectomy after axillary lymph node dissection. The other 4 patients received only systemic therapy. Receptor conversion between primary and lymph-node recurrent site was identified for ER in 2 patients; one showed a lower expression of ER and the other showed for HER2. These led to a change in the subsequent treatment plan; 6 patients had systemic chemotherapy after recurrence, 1 patient had endocrine, 2 patients had trastuzumab and 4 patients continued the same treatment prior to surgery. Ten out of 13 patients were alive without recurrence, and 3 patients were with distant metastasis. However, one of the 3 patients who had a distant metastasis died due to brain and lung metastasis. Axillary node recurrence should be treated with axillary dissection, if possible, and receptor measurement in primary and recurrent site is useful for subsequent treatment.