Objective: to analyze the relation of anatomopathological features and axillary involvement in cases of invasive ductal carcinoma. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study of 220 breast cancer patients submitted to radical mastectomy or quadrantectomy with axilar emptying, from the Mastology Service of the Assis Chateaubriand Maternity School, Ceará, Brazil. We submitted the tumors to histological processing and determined the histological (HG), tubular (TG) and nuclear (NG) grades, and the mitotic index (MI) by the classification of Scarff-Bloom-Richadson, verified the presence of angiolymphatic invasion (AI) and measured the largest tumor diameter (TD). We then correlated these variables with the presence of axillary metastases. Results: the mean patients'age was 56.81 years ± 13.28. Tumor size ranged from 0.13 to 22 cm, with an average of 2.23cm ± 2.79. HG3, TG3 and NG3 prevailed, respectively 107 (48.6%), 160 (72.7%) and 107 (48.6%). Mitotic indexes 1, 2 and 3 presented a homogeneous distribution, respectively 82 (37.2%), 68 (31%) and 70 (31.8%). We observed no relation between the HG, TG and NG with the occurrence of axillary metastases (p=0.07, p=0.22 and p=0.21, respectively). Mitotic indices 2 and 3 were related with the occurrence of axillary metastases (p=0.03). Tumors larger than 2cm and cases that presented angiolymphatic invasion had a higher index of axillary metastases (p=0.0003 and p<0.0001). Conclusion: elevated mitotic indexes, tumors with a diameter greater than 2cm and the presence of angiolymphatic invasion were individuallyassociatedwith the occurrence of axillary metastases.
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