Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May;28(5):2522-2528.
doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-09674-9. Epub 2021 Feb 14.

Women Could Avoid Axillary Lymph Node Dissection by Choosing Breast-Conserving Therapy Instead of Mastectomy

Marissa L G Vane  1   2 , JoAnna Hunter-Squires  3 , Sungjin Kim  4 , Marjolein L Smidt  1   2 , Armando E Giuliano  5
Affiliations

Women Could Avoid Axillary Lymph Node Dissection by Choosing Breast-Conserving Therapy Instead of Mastectomy

Marissa L G Vane et al. Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 May.

Abstract

Background: The ACOSOG Z0011 trial showed that completion axillary lymph node dissection (cALND) can be safely omitted for some patients with T1-2 clinically node-negative breast cancer with one to two involved sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) treated with breast-conserving therapy (BCT). There is little evidence for the safety of omitting cALND for mastectomy-treated patients. Consequently, cALND is often recommended for sentinel node-positive patients treated with mastectomy. The aim of this study is to determine the proportion of patients who could avoid cALND by choosing BCT instead of mastectomy at a tertiary cancer center.

Patients and methods: All T1-2 clinically node-negative breast cancer patients treated with BCT or mastectomy between 2012 and 2017 with metastases in the SLN(s) were selected from a prospectively maintained database. Clinical factors and outcomes were evaluated between the two groups. Differences were compared using Wilcoxon rank-sum test, chi-square test or Fisher's exact test as appropriate. Significance was set at the 0.05 level for all analyses.

Results: A total of 306 patients were included, 199 (65.0%) of whom were treated with BCT and 107 (35.0%) with mastectomy. Patients treated with mastectomy were more often treated with cALND compared with those treated with BCT (71.0% versus 26.6%, p < 0.0001). Overall, 52 of the mastectomy patients (68.4%) could have avoided cALND if they had chosen BCT.

Conclusions: Patients treated with mastectomy are more likely to receive cALND than those treated with BCT. Axillary management should be addressed during discussion of primary tumor therapy, and cALND may be avoided when patients choose BCT instead of mastectomy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Krag D. Sentinel lymph node biopsy for the detection of metastases. Cancer. 2000;6(Suppl 2):S121–4.
    1. Krag DN, Anderson SJ, Julian TB, Brown AM, Harlow SP, Ashikaga T, et al. Technical outcomes of sentinel-lymph-node resection and conventional axillary-lymph-node dissection in patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer: results from the NSABP B-32 randomised phase III trial. Lancet Oncol. 2007;8(10):881–8. - DOI
    1. Krag DN, Anderson SJ, Julian TB, Brown AM, Harlow SP, Costantino JP, et al. Sentinel-lymph-node resection compared with conventional axillary-lymph-node dissection in clinically node-negative patients with breast cancer: overall survival findings from the NSABP B-32 randomised phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2010;11(10):927–33. - DOI
    1. van der Ploeg IM, Nieweg OE, van Rijk MC, Valdes Olmos RA, Kroon BB. Axillary recurrence after a tumour-negative sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature. Eur J Surg Oncol. 2008;34(12):1277–84. - DOI
    1. Giuliano AE, Kirgan DM, Guenther JM, Morton DL. Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy for breast cancer. Ann Surg. 1994;220(3):391–8 (discussion 8-401). - DOI

LinkOut - more resources