Table 5: Number of patients with micro-metastasis (macro-metastasis-negative nodes stained with CK-22) in different node groups.

Pre-operative evaluation Lower LN Group Upper LN group Post-operative evaluation SLN Non-SLN LNMM (−) 34 41 29 50 28 LNMM (+) 19 12 24 3 25 Number of samples 53 53 53 53 53

LNMM (−): micro-metastasis negative; LNMM (+): micro-metastasis positive; SLN: sentinel lymph nodes group; non-SLN: non-sentinel lymph nodes group.