Prognostic comparison between sentinel lymph node biopsy only and axillary lymph node
dissection in node negative breast cancer patients

Keimyung Medical Journal 2009;28(2):233-240.

Prognostic comparison between sentinel lymph node biopsy only and axillary lymph node dissection in node negative breast cancer patients

림프절 전이가 없는 유방암 환자에서 감시 림프절 생검만 시행한 환자와 고식적 액와 림프절 절제술 시행한 환자의 예후 비교

강선희; 김미선; 김인호; 권선영

Abstract

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) without completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is replacing ALND as the axillary staging procedure in breast cancer patients with clinically negative axilla. However; it is unclear whether this influences patient survival. The purpose of this study was to compare the survival between SNLB only group and ALND group. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 554 node negative breast cancer patients who were treated at our hospital between January 1995 and December 2005. Age; tumor size; histology; stage; hormonal receptor status; HER-2/neu status; methods of surgery; adjuvant chemotherapy and adjuvant hormonal therapy were analyzed. There was no significant difference in distribution of age; tumor size; stage and hormonal receptor status between two groups. The incidence of HER-2/neu over expression; mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy between two groups was higher in ALND group; it was statistically significant. The median follow-up period was 30 months for SLNB group and 59 months for the ALND group. Recurrence in ALND group were 46 patients (10.7%) and 2 patients (1.6%) in SLNB only group. Axillary recurrence was not observed. Three- year disease free survival rate was 92.8% in ALND group; 95.2% in SLNB group and there was no statistically significant. Although this study is a short-term result; SLNB appears to be a safe and reliable procedure for axillary staging.

Key Words: breast cancer, sentinel node biopsy, survival