Long-term follow-up data confirm that axillary dissection is unnecessary in patients with minimal tumor burden in the sentinel nodes.
The replacement of axillary dissection (AD) with sentinel-node biopsy has been one of the great advances for women with early-stage breast cancer and is now standard for most patients with clinically negative nodes.
Among patients with node-positive disease, the prior international, randomized, controlled, noninferiority, phase III trial IBCSG 23-01 (Lancet Oncol 2013; 14:297) showed that outcomes were similar after a median of 5 years whether AD was performed or not for 934 women with tumor size ≤5 cm and one or more metastatic sentinel nodes (<2 mm) without extra-capsular invasion. However, there has been concern that such patients who do not receive AD might have poorer outcomes in the longer term than those who do. Now, to address this i…
Reviewing Author
DisclosuresConsultant/Advisory BoardLilly; AstraZeneca; Gilead
Grant/Research SupportBreast Cancer Research Foundation
Editorial BoardsClinical Breast Cancer; Oncology; Annals of Surgery; Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNational Comprehensive Cancer Network (Chair, Breast Cancer Panel); American Board of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology Board)
DisclosuresConsultant/Advisory BoardLilly; AstraZeneca; Gilead
Grant/Research SupportBreast Cancer Research Foundation
Editorial BoardsClinical Breast Cancer; Oncology; Annals of Surgery; Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNational Comprehensive Cancer Network (Chair, Breast Cancer Panel); American Board of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology Board)