Open AccessAxillary Recurrence Rate in Breast Cancer Patients with Negative Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy or Containing Micrometastases and Without Further Lymphadenectomy: A Monocentric Review of 8 Years and 481 Cases
Author(s) -
Toussaint Arnaud,
Nogaret JeanMarie,
Veys Isabelle,
Hertens Dina,
Noterman Danielle,
De Neubourg Filip,
Larsimont Denis,
Bourgeois Pierre
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the breast journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1524-4741
pISSN - 1075-122X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1524-4741.2011.01113.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sentinel lymph node , axillary lymph node dissection , breast cancer , biopsy , sentinel node , axilla , lymph , surgery , stage (stratigraphy) , axillary dissection , lymphadenectomy , lymph node , radiology , cancer , pathology , paleontology , biology
Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has almost completely replaced complete axillary lymph node dissection (CALND) as the first‐line axillary procedure for clinically node‐negative early stage breast cancer. We assessed the incidence of axillary relapse in patients with negative SLNB who had no additional CALND (group 1, n = 481) and in patients whose SLNB contained micrometastases and had no further CALND (group 2, n = 45). All patients were operated on between November 1997 and December 2005 and followed at the Jules Bordet Institute. The median follow‐up was 48 months. A mean of 2.2 sentinel lymph nodes was removed per patient. Axillary relapse was observed in only one patient (0.2%) in group 1 and in none of the patients in group 2. This study confirms that the axillary recurrence rate after long‐term follow‐up of patients with a negative sentinel lymph node is very rare, provided that the selection criteria are judicious.