Features of Metastases in Axillary Lymph Nodes From Breast Carcinomas and Effectivenes of Serial Sectioning in Detection of Micrometastases

Fort he assesment of the suitable therapy and prognosis; some histopathological features especially determining axillary lymph nodes correctly becomes so much important. Between the years 1998 and 2001 at Selcuk University Meram Medical Faculty pathology Laboratory 777 axillary Iymph nodes materials obtained from 47 modified mastectomy examined retrospectively for determining the micrometastasis that couldn’t be found before. After serial sections in 2 of 19 cases micrometastasis were found. These 19 patient were said not to have metastasis before. The incidence of finding micrometastasis decreased as the serial section counts increased. As a result; serial section method is more effective than routine examinations for determining the micrometastasis and in the examinations using 20µ section interval and taking 6 sections is a recommendable method.