Early stage triple positive node biopsy

Are you asking about a Sentinel Node Biopsy or an Axillary Lymph Node Dissection? The article you linked refers to an ALND. As far as I know, everyone with an invasive breast cancer diagnosis has an SNB, although in the past an ALND may have been more routine after neoadjuvant chemo.

But I'm not HER2+ nor did I have neoadjuvant chemo, so hopefully someone else comes by who has that experience.

I saw that sentence and it makes no sense in the context of the rest of what the articles says.

"During lumpectomy or mastectomy, we routinely perform what is called a sentinel node biopsy, in which we remove one or more lymph nodes under the arm to inspect for cancer cells. The sentinel node is the first node to which breast cancer cells travel after leaving the breast. We can determine which node or nodes these are by injecting a small amount of dye or radioactivity into the breast and tracking where it goes next.

If the sentinel lymph node or nodes are free of cancer, we'll leave the remaining axillary lymph nodes alone. This approach saves many women from the most troublesome potential side effect of more-extensive surgery: swelling of the arm, known as lymphedema.

So they say that they do routinely perform an SNB for patients undergoing a lumpectomy or mastectomy. And to the last sentence, how can they know that only one or two sentinel nodes contain cancer if they have not performed a SNB? (A needle biopsy is not definitive since it only picks up a sample of the nodal tissue, versus having the entire node evaluated under a microscope by the pathologist.) My guess is that it's a typo, and the last sentence is supposed to say "However, research shows that removing the axillary lymph nodes offers no benefit for women who have had lumpectomy and radiotherapy and who have only one or two sentinel nodes containing cancer." This makes sense and there is research that shows that an ALND is not necessary when the SNB finds only 1 or 2 positive nodes.

Definitely ask your surgeon. When mine checked on me in pre-op for my sentinel node biopsy I asked if there was any chance of it turning into an axillary lymph node dissection if they found something and that if so, I didn't want to consent to that part, that I would prefer to talk it through first and then go back in again if we decided it was truly needed because the research I had been reading was unclear. At some point earlier in the staging process the possibility had been mentioned. She reassured me that this wouldn't happen and that it wasn't even on the consent form. I woke up minus only 1 node. This is definitely a concern they should address with you because it's a good question!

I personally found having 1 node removed to be very minor in terms of recovery. I did not have any lingering pain or odd sensations anywhere and it seemed to heal quickly. Port placement was worse. Experiences may vary, though. And I'm a little nervous that only one node was tested, honestly. I read the surgeon's notes in my portal on the operation and the one node was the only one that picked up the tracer, so there wasn't anything else to do, but I was expecting 2-4 sentinel nodes to be removed.