What is the connection between lymph nodes and breast cancer?
The axillary lymph nodes are the ones that are most likely to drain the area of your breast that has a tumor, even though there are other lymph nodes both in your breast and closer to your breastbone. If the tumor has sloughed off waste cancer cells, the axillary lymph nodes have probably collected them. Testing these lymph nodes for cancer is one way to determine how aggressive the tumor is and whether the cancer cells have begun to travel to other parts of the body. There are approximately 20 lymph nodes in two clumps in each armpit. Half of them are called Level 1 (the easiest to get to) and the other group is called Level 2. There are additional lymph nodes under the collarbone, and more on either side of the breastbone, but these are rarely removed in surgery. Unfortunately, surgeons can’t remove lymph nodes, test them for cancer, and put back the ones that do not have traces of cancer. In fact, they usually can’t even see lymph nodes because they are so small. Surgeons usually re
