from surgical histology. 35 patients were excluded as they did not undergo sentinel lymph node biopsy or axillary clearance. Results: Analysis of the remaining 96 patients revealed strong negative correlation (r ¼ À0.908) between increasing tumour size (T1 to T3) and rate of axillary metastasis. 40% of all tumour T4 staged patients had axillary involvement. Regardless of tumour size, South Asians had highest tendency for axillary disease (42%) then followed by Afro-Caribbeans (39%). Conclusion:

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... Based on our study, increasing primary tumour size is ironically associated with reduced rates of axillary disease. Chest wall and cutaneous invasion strongly predict axillary metastasis. Ethnicity does appear to alter the risk of lymphatic spread. However, further work with a larger study population are needed for firm conclusions to be drawn.