HBEGF and invasive breast carcinoma: In addition, elevated HB-EGF plasma levels also correlate with lymph node dissemination of mammary breast carcinomas (Figure 4C): healthy donors (Ctrl; n = 26) and lymph node negative invasive mammary carcinoma patients (pN0; n = 26) displayed mean HB-EGF plasma concentrations of 21.2 pg/ml and 24.6 pg/ml, respectively, whereas significantly elevated HB-EGF levels were detected in patients with disseminated tumors (97.5 pg/ml; pN > 0; n = 28).