Can we avoid axillary lymph node dissection in N2 breast cancer patients with chemo-sensitive tumours such as HER2 and TNBC?

a.sfakia shared this article with you from Inoreader Can we avoid axillary lymph node dissection in N2 breast cancer patients with chemo-sensitive tumours such as HER2 and TNBC? Via pubmed: her2-positive breast... Can we avoid axillary lymph node dissection in N2 breast cancer patients with chemo-sensitive tumours such as HER2 and TNBC? Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2020 Oct 17;: Authors: Garcia-Tejedor A, Fernandez-Gonzalez S, Ortega R, Gil-Gil M, Perez-Montero H, Fernandez-Montolí E, Stradella A, Recalde S, Soler T, Petit A, Bajen MT, Benitez A, Guma A, Campos M, Pla MJ, Martinez E, Laplana M, Pernas S, Perez-Sildekova D, Catala I, Ponce J, Falo C Abstract PURPOSE: To find a group of cN2 patients or patients with high axillary burden who become ypN0 after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and who may benefit from avoiding a lymphadenectomy. METHODS: A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted with 221 clinically staged N2 patients or patients with at least 3 suspicious lymph nodes found by ultrasound at diagnosis. The predictive factors for ypN0 analysed were age, MRI-determined tumour size, histological subtype, the Nottingham histologic grade, surrogate molecular subtype, ki-67 and vascular invasion when present. Clinical and radiological responses after NACT were also evaluated. Univariate and multivariate analyses by logistic regression were performed. Distant disease-free survival (DDFS) was calculated in relation to the status of the axillary lymph nodes after NACT. RESULTS: After NACT, 89 patients (40.3%) had axillary pathologic complete response (pCR) (ypN0) and 132 (59.7%) had residual axillary disease (ypN+). Molecular surrogate subtype, Ki-67 expression, and the clinical and radiological responses to NACT were the only independent factors associated with ypN0. Axillary pCR was observed more often in HER2-positive and triple-negative tumours than in luminal ones (OR 7.5 and 3.6, respectively). DDFS was 88.7% (95% CI 80.7-96.7%) for ypN0 and 56.2% (95% CI 32.1-80.3%) for ypN+ (p = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS: In HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer patients staged as cN2 or with high axillary burden before NACT, a sentinel lymph node biopsy after NACT could be recommended if there is a clinical and radiological response. PMID: 33068198 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.