Feasibility of de-escalating axillary surgery in patients with clinical N2-3, pathological N0 breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

ABSTRACT: Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) omission improves quality of life but is only considered under certain conditions. We investigated expanding these conditions in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for clinical N2-3, pathological N0 breast cancer. We retrospectively reviewed data of 1346 patients with clinical N2-3, M0, who underwent surgical resection (sentinel lymph node biopsy [SLNB] only, or level I-II ALND with/without SLNB) following NAC from January 2008 to December 2021. Univariate and multivariate analyses of overall (OS), disease-free (DFS), regional recurrence-free (RFS), and axillary recurrence-free survival (ARFS) were performed before and after propensity score matching (PSM) to control for confounding factors. Of the total patients, 521 (37.5%) achieved an

SUBMITTER: Kim EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11961621 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature