Key clinical point: Certain preoperative clinicopathological factors can predict the presence of ≥4 pathologically positive lymph nodes in postmenopausal women with clinically node-negative (cN0) breast cancer (BC) who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) with or without completion axillary lymph node dissection (cALND).
Major finding: Only 2.5% of the evaluated patients reported having ≥4 positive lymph nodes, with the factors serving as independent predictors of ≥4 positive nodes being larger tumor size (odds ratio [OR] 1.42; P < .0001), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) or mixed invasive ductal carcinoma/ILC histology (OR 3.03 or 1.99, respectively; P = .008), multifocality (OR 3.58; P < .0001), and the presence of lymphovascular invasion (OR 4.77; P < .0001).
Study details: This retrospective review included 2532 postmenopausal women with cN0 BC who underwent SLNB, of whom 24.3% underwent cALND.
Disclosures: This study was supported by an US National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant. Some authors declared serving on medical or scientific advisory boards of, receiving research funding or support for clinical trials from, or having other ties with various sources.
Source: Farley C et al. To dissect or not to dissect: Can we predict the presence of four or more axillary lymph node metastases in postmenopausal women with clinically node-negative breast cancer? Ann Surg Oncol. 2023 (Sep 5). doi: 10.1245/s10434-023-14245-1