Open AccessSentinel lymph node biopsy does not apply to all axillary lymph node‐positive breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Author(s) -
Ge Wenkai,
Yang Ben,
Zuo Wenshu,
Zheng Gang,
Dai Yingqi,
Han Chao,
Yang Li,
Zheng Meizhu
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
thoracic cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1759-7714
pISSN - 1759-7706
DOI - 10.1111/1759-7714.12131
Subject(s) - medicine , breast cancer , sentinel lymph node , chemotherapy , biopsy , oncology , lymph node , axillary lymph nodes , axilla , cancer
Background The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of sentinel lymph node biopsy ( SLNB ) after neoadjuant chemotherapy ( NAC ) in breast cancer patients with confirmed axillary nodal metastases. Methods We enrolled 51 patients with breast cancer who received NAC . All patients were proven to have axillary nodal metastases by histopathology biopsy prior to NAC . They all underwent SLNB before breast surgery, and complete axillary lymph node dissection immediately followed. Results The identification rate for SLNB was 87.5% (84/96); the false negative rate was 24.5% (12/49). The clinicopathological factors were not significantly correlated with the identification and false negative rate of the SLNB . Lymphatic mapping, blue dye or radionuclide methods tended to decrease the identification rate of SLNB ( P = 0.073). Clinical nodal status before NAC has a trend to increase the false‐negative rates of the SLNB ( P = 0.059). For patients with N 1 clinical axillary lymph nodal status, the identification rate was 93.9%, and the false negative rate was 5.9%, compared with N 2‐3 patients with 73.9% and 38.9%, respectively. Conclusions SLNB is feasible for the patients whose axillary lymph nodal status before NAC is N 1. However, for N 2‐3 patients, SLNB cannot be used as an infallible indicator of non‐ SLN status.