In early breast cancer, the presence of metastasis in axillary lymph nodes is an important factor in prognosis and further treatment. However, axillary lymph node dissection causes many complications such as contracture of the shoulder joint, lymph edema, and paralysis of the upper extremities (Ernst, 2002). Convention holds that there is no need to dissect axillary lymph nodes for node-negativ...

AIM To assess the axillary recurrence rate in operable breast cancer patients with clinically negative axilla after negative sentinel lymph node in whom axillary lymph node dissection had not been performed. METHODS Fifty consecutive female operable breast cancer patients with negative sentinel lymph node biopsy in whom axillary lymph node dissection had not been performed were included in th...

Axillary nodal status is the most important prognostic factor for patients with breast cancer. Clinical assessment and imaging modalities are not always reliable. Surgical removal and histopathological examination of axillary lymph nodes remain essential methods of staging the axilla and planning breast cancer therapy (Chu et al, 2010; Perry, 2001) But whether axillary lymph node dissection imp...

BACKGROUND The standard treatment of the axilla in breast cancer used to be an axillary lymph node dissection. An axillary lymph node dissection is known to give substantial risks of morbidity. In recent years the sentinel node biopsy has become common practice. Future randomized study results will determine whether the expected decrease in morbidity can be proven. METHODS Before the introduc...

HYPOTHESIS The presence of nonsentinel lymph node (NSLN) metastasis after having a positive sentinel lymph node dissection finding is associated with tumor size and stage, the presence of lymphovascular invasion, micrometastasis, and extranodal extension. DESIGN Retrospective case series. SETTING University hospital. PATIENTS Four hundred seven consecutive patients at a single institution...

Radical surgery of breast cancer includes lymphadenectomy of axilla as well as the dissection of the neoplastic tissue. However recently many works have raised doubts on the opportunity of performing routinary axillary dissection, which elevates morbidity risk, in absence of axillary metastases. However, unfortunately, information on axillary lymph node pathology, is not available with any othe...

BACKGROUND: Lymph node metastasis is the single most important factor in assessing breast cancer prognosis and planning systemic therapy. However, lymph node dissection portends significant morbidity, with little or no therapeutic benefit if the nodes prove to be negative for cancer. METHODS: The authors review indications for avoiding axillary dissection, and they analyze the results from lowe...

BACKGROUND Axillary lymph node dissection for staging the axilla in breast carcinoma patients is associated with considerable morbidity, such as edema of the arm, pain, sensory disturbances, impairment of arm mobility, and shoulder stiffness. Sentinel lymph node biopsy electively removes the first lymph node, which gets the drainage from the tumor and should therefore be associated with nearly ...

BACKGROUND In patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer, diagnosed with palpation and several types of imaging examination, sentinel lymph nodes accurately predict the status of the other axillary nodes, which determine the nature of subsequent adjuvant treatment. In addition, compared with axillary lymph node dissection, sentinel-node biopsy results in less postoperative morbidity, ...

PURPOSE The study was to estimate the likelihood of axillary downstaging and to identify the factors predicting a pathologically node negative status after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with or without trastuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer. METHODS Patients with HER2-positive, stage IIa-IIIc breast cancer were enrolled. Axillary status was evaluated by palpation and fine needle aspirati...