Sentinel lymph node biopsy is associated with improved survival compared to level I & II axillary lymph node dissection in node negative breast cancer patients

Langer, I; Guller, U; Hsu-Schmitz, S F; Ladewig, A; Viehl, C T; Moch, H; Wight, E; Harder, F; Oertli, D; Zuber, M (2009). Sentinel lymph node biopsy is associated with improved survival compared to level I & II axillary lymph node dissection in node negative breast cancer patients. European journal of surgical oncology EJSO, 35(8), pp. 805-13. Amsterdam: Elsevier 10.1016/j.ejso.2008.09.006

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OBJECTIVE: The few long-term follow-up data for sentinel lymph node (SLN) negative breast cancer patients demonstrate a 5-year disease-free survival of 96-98%. It remains to be elucidated whether the more accurate SLN staging defines a more selective node negative patient group and whether this is associated with better overall and disease-free survival compared with level I ; II axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). METHODS: Three-hundred and fifty-five consecutive node negative patients with early stage breast cancer (pT1 and pT2< or =3 cm, pN0/pN(SN)0) were assessed from our prospective database. Patients underwent either ALND (n=178) in 1990-1997 or SLN biopsy (n=177) in 1998-2004. All SLN were examined by step sectioning, stained with H;E and immunohistochemistry. Lymph nodes from ALND specimens were examined by standard H;E only. Neither immunohistochemistry nor step sections were performed in the analysis of ALND specimen. RESULTS: The median follow-up was 49 months in the SLN and 133 months in the ALND group. Patients in the SLN group had a significantly better disease-free (p=0.008) and overall survival (p=0.034). After adjusting for other prognostic factors in Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, SLN procedure was an independent predictor for improved disease-free (HR: 0.28, 95% CI: 0.10-0.73, p=0.009) and overall survival (HR: 0.34, 95% CI: 0.14-0.84, p=0.019). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first prospective analysis providing evidence that early stage breast cancer patients with a negative SLN have an improved disease-free and overall survival compared with node negative ALND patients. This is most likely due to a more accurate axillary staging in the SLN group.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Gastro-intestinal, Liver and Lung Disorders (DMLL) > Clinic of Visceral Surgery and Medicine > Visceral Surgery 08 Faculty of Science > Department of Mathematics and Statistics > Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science
UniBE Contributor:	Güller, Ulrich, Hsu, Shu-Fang
ISSN:	0748-7983
Publisher:	Elsevier
Language:	English
Submitter:	Lutz Dümbgen
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2013 15:13
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:22
Publisher DOI:	10.1016/j.ejso.2008.09.006
PubMed ID:	19046846
Web of Science ID:	000268439200004
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/32355 (FactScience: 197461)