[Glomus structures in axillary lymph nodes and the demarcation against metastases of mammary carcinoma (author's transl)].

A report is presented on the demonstration of epithelioid cell clusters within the axillary lymph node group, which could be taken for micrometastases of a mammary carcinoma. The lymph node material from 400 extensively excised mammary carcinomas with obligatory lymphonodectomy was available for this study. Metastases of mammary carcinoma were found in 264 cases (66%). Therewithal a procedure with microscopic inspection of successive sections at 100 mu intervals of all lymph nodes led to the discovery of epithelioid cell clusters in 18 out of the 400 cases examined. As regards their appearance and structural peculiarities, with direct allocation to the local vascular stroma, these clusters must be regarded as glomus-like structures. From a clinical point of view, their fundamental significance consists in the necessary differentialdiagnostic demarcation against micrometastases of carcinoma in the region of origin of the lymph.