Therapeutic choice of axillary treatment after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with node-positive breast cancer / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Objective: To analyze the feasibility of axillary lymph node staging through sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) after neoad-juvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with node-positive breast cancer and to explore the follow-up treatment of these patients. Methods: Clinical data of 82 patients with node-positive breast cancer before NAC in Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2016 to January 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. All these patients accepted SLNB after NAC. The detection rate, accuracy, false negative rate (FNR), and influencing factors were analyzed. Results: A nodal pathological complete response (PCR) was achieved in 43 of 82 patients. The PCR rate was 52.4%. The detection rate, accuracy, and FNR were 97.56% (80/82), 88.75% (71/80), and 23.08% (9/39), respectively. The accuracy of 1, 2, and≥3 SLNs detected were 90.9% (20/22), 66.7% (10/15), and 95.3% (41/43), respectively. The FNRs were 20.0% (2/10), 71.4% (5/7), and 9.1% (2/22), respectively (both P<0.05). Conclusions: Due to its overall high FNR, without clinically acceptable limits, post-NAC SLNB cannot completely replace axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in node-positive patients. However, with no less than 3 SLNs detected, SLNB can accurately evaluate the status of axillary lymph nodes.