Numbers of mast cells in the axillary lymph nodes of breast cancer patients.

This retrospective study of surgical specimens from forty-three consecutive patients treated by modified radical mastectomy for carcinoma of the breast shows that those patients surviving for at least sixty months after operation have a significantly greater number of mast cells in their axillary lymph nodes than the nonsurvivors (p less than .001). When expressed as cells/mm2 the survivors are associated with nodal concentrations greater than eleven mast cells per square millimeter while the nonsurvivors haver fewer than eleven mast cells/mm2. The results suggest that the number of nodal mast cells may be a readily quantitated host response of prognostic value in carcinoma of the breast.