Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the relation between proximity of
breast cancer to the skin and incidence of axillary nodal metastasis in order to clarify a
new guideline in treatment of early cancer breast.
Methods: This study includes 50 female patients with early cancer breast (T1 and T2).
All patients underwent breast ultrasonography (U/S) with special confirmation on the
breast cancer distance from skin surface (radiological distance) in addition to pathological
assessment of the distance (pathological distance) after surgical excision and its correlation
with radiological distance. Breast conservative surgery (BCS) with axillary clearance was
done for 46 patients, while 4 patients underwent modified radical mastectomy (MRM).
Results: This study showed that the more proximal the cancer from the skin, the higher
the incidence of axillary lymph node (LN) metastasis, and the cut off radiological distance
was 1.55cm while cut off pathological distance was 1.5 cm. It also proved that U/S is an
accurate and reliable method in a assessing the breast cancer distance.
Conclusion: Our results revealed that breast cancers located closer to the skin surface
have a higher incidence of axillary LN metastasis.