Sentinel lymph node biopsy is feasible for breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing use of both sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with operable breast cancer, information on the feasibility and accuracy of sentinel node biopsy following neoadjuvant chemotherapy is still quite limited. Therefore, we investigated the feasibility and accuracy of sentinel lymph node biopsy for breast cancer patients after NAC.

METHODS: A total of 104 patients with Stage II and III breast cancers, previously treated by NAC, were enrolled in the study. All patients were clinically node-negative after NAC. The patients underwent SLN biopsy, which involved a combination of an intradermal injection of radiocolloid and a subareolar injection of blue dye over the tumor. This was followed by completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

RESULTS: SLN could be identified in 97 of 104 patients (identification rate, 93.3%). In 93 of the 97 patients (95.9%), the SLN accurately predicted the axillary status. Four patients' SLN biopsies were false negative, resulting in a false-negative rate of 10.0%. The SLN identification rate tended to be lower among patients with T4 primary tumors prior to NAC (62.5%).

CONCLUSION: The SLN identification and false-negative rates were similar to rates in non-neoadjuvant studies. The SLN accurately predicted metastatic disease in the axilla of patients with tumor response following NAC.