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Breast Cancer
Published in: Breast Cancer 1/2010

01-01-2010 | Special Feature

Axillary lymph node dissection can be avoided in women with breast cancer with intraoperative, false-negative sentinel lymph node biopsies

Authors: Hiroyuki Takei, Masafumi Kurosumi, Takashi Yoshida, Yuko Ishikawa, Yuji Hayashi, Jun Ninomiya, Katsunori Tozuka, Hanako Oba, Kenichi Inoue, Shigenori Nagai, Yoshihiro Saito, Tomoko Kazumoto, Jun-ichi Saitoh, Toshio Tabei

Published in: Breast Cancer | Issue 1/2010

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Abstract

Background

It is currently unclear which patients with breast cancer with sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastases do not need axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

Patients and methods

A cohort of 1,132 women who had unilateral invasive breast cancer with clinically negative nodes or nodes suspicious for metastasis, were intraoperatively diagnosed as having negative SLNs, and did not undergo an immediate ALND. Our intraoperative histological investigation uses H&E staining of a frozen section from a maximum cut surface of each SLN. Of these 1,132 women, 132 (11.7%) were postoperatively diagnosed as having positive SLNs, which classifies them as having an intraoperative, false-negative SLN biopsy (SLNB). Patient and tumor characteristics, treatment methods, and the prognoses of these patients were investigated and compared with the remaining 1,000 patients who were negative for SLNB.

Results

Of the 132 patients with intraoperative, false-negative SLNB, none underwent a further ALND. With a median follow-up period of 58.1 months, none of these patients exhibited recurrence in the axillary nodes. Their recurrence-free survival rates were not statistically different from those of patients with negative SLNB.

Conclusions

ALND can be avoided in most patients with breast cancer with intraoperative, false-negative SLNB.
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Metadata
Title
Axillary lymph node dissection can be avoided in women with breast cancer with intraoperative, false-negative sentinel lymph node biopsies
Authors
Hiroyuki Takei
Masafumi Kurosumi
Takashi Yoshida
Yuko Ishikawa
Yuji Hayashi
Jun Ninomiya
Katsunori Tozuka
Hanako Oba
Kenichi Inoue
Shigenori Nagai
Yoshihiro Saito
Tomoko Kazumoto
Jun-ichi Saitoh
Toshio Tabei
Publication date
01-01-2010
Publisher
Springer Japan
Published in
Breast Cancer / Issue 1/2010
Print ISSN: 1340-6868
Electronic ISSN: 1880-4233
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-009-0154-4

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