Axillary treatment options in clinically nodes-positive breast cancer whose nodes become pathologically nodes-negative after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a pairwise and network meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has increased heterogeneity in regional axillary management. The optimal strategy remains uncertain for patients with clinically node-positive (cN+) breast cancer (BC) who convert to pathologically node-negative (ypN0) status after NAC. This study aimed to identify the most appropriate axillary treatment strategies for this subgroup.

Materials and methods

PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies published up to July 2025. Pairwise meta-analysis and Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) were conducted in R to compare survival outcomes. The primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Comparative efficacy was summarized using forest plots, league tables, and surf

SUBMITTER: Guan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12943811 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature