RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The recent American Joint Committee on Cancer revision of the staging system for breast cancer classifies sentinel node metastases < 0.2 mm (pN0[i+]) as node negative and those > 0.2 mm but < 2 mm are designated pN1(mi). We examined the association between size of sentinel node metastases and rate of nonsentinel node metastases, specifically in the subgroup of patients with micrometastases. STUDY DESIGN: We examined the nonsentinel nodes of 124 patients with positive sentinel nodes and correlated the likelihood of nonsentinel node involvement with the size of the metastasis in the sentinel node and primary tumor characteristics. RESULTS: Nonsentinel node metastases were found in 19% (6 of 31) of patients with sentinel node metastases