Introduction/Background The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in early breast cancer.

Methodology We included 135 patients with clinical T0, T1 and T2 invasive breast carcinoma who underwent resection of the primary tumor and axillary staging by sentinel lymph node biopsy and/or axillar lymph node dissection between 2012 and 2018. LNR was stratified into 2 groups: LNR <0.1 and LNR ≥0.1. We studied the correlation between LNR and clinical and pathological factors.

Results The mean age was 52.09±13.38 years. The median clinical tumor size was 25 mm. Most of the patients had T2 tumors (51.9%) and only six patients had T0 tumor (4.4%). The mean pathologic tumor size was 21.67±8.854 mm. The majority of patients (68.2%) had low grade carcinoma (grade 1 or 2). The hormone receptors ER/PR were positive in 74.8% of cases and 21.4% exhibited HER2 overexpression. The mean number of examined lymph node (LN) was 17.05 (range from 1 to 40). LN metastasis were recorded in 56 patients (41.5%) and 29 patients (21.5%) had a LNR ≥ 0.1. On univariate analysis, LNR exceeding 0.1 was associated to the tumor size exceeding 30 mm (37.9% vs 17%; p=0.015), high tumor grade (37.2% in grade 3 vs 14.1% in grade 1 and 2; p=0.002), the presence of lymphovascular space invasion (56% vs 13.6%; p<0.0001), the presence of perineural invasion (61.5% vs 17.2%; p<0.0001) and the overexpression of HER 2 (35.7% vs 18.4%, p=0.05).

Conclusion Overall, the LNR in early breast cancer holds significant prognostic value and helps clinicians determine the risk of recurrence, guiding treatment strategies to improve outcomes for patients.

Disclosures No conflict of interest.