Most women with early-stage bc have SNB and can avoid ALND

besa

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/15032...

"A new study of women with early-stage breast cancer finds that surgeons no longer universally remove most of the lymph nodes in the underarm area when a biopsy of the nearby lymph nodes shows cancer -- a major change in breast cancer management.....

Until now, it was unclear to what extent surgeons were following the recommendations of a landmark clinical trial published more than four years ago, known as the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z0011, or ACOSOG Z-11, trial. Those researchers reported that most early-stage breast cancer patients with tumor in their sentinel lymph node (the first draining node) who undergo lumpectomy do not benefit from surgical removal of the remaining lymph nodes in the underarm area, called completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). That study found no difference in cancer recurrence¹ and five-year survival² between patients who underwent ALND and those who did not but were monitored for recurrences."

"Journal Reference:

1. Katharine Yao, Erik Liederbach, Catherine Pesce, Chi-Hsiung Wang, David J. Winchester. Impact of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z0011 Randomized Trial on the Number of Axillary Nodes Removed for Patients with Early Stage Breast Cancer. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, March 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2015.02.035. "

patty101014

My surgeon, Thomas Julian, was one of the surgeons that was part of the trial that first published the SNB recommendations. I Have my pre op meeting next week and want to ask him about the risk of false negatives in patients whohave undergone neoadjuvant Chemo.

placid44

Patty,

Interesting about your surgeon. I had one positive node and did not have ALND. Did have radiation.