Feasibility of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Breast Cancer Patients with Axillary Conversion after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy—A Single-Tertiary Centre Experience and Review of the Literature

Abstract

(1) Introduction: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is widely used in breast cancer patients who undergo neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), replacing axillary lymph node dissection. While commonly accepted for cN0 patients, its role in cN1/2 patients remains controversial. Our study aims to investigate the role of SLNB in BC patients who underwent prior NAC and compare our results to those of other studies presented in the literature. (2) Materials and methods: Our retrospective study included 102 breast cancer patients who received NAC before 99mTc-albumin Nanocolloid SLN mapping and SLNB was performed, completed or not with axillary dissection. A review based on the PRISMA statement was also carried out, encompassing 20 studies. (3) Results: The lymphoscintigraphy performed after the administration of NAC presented an identification rate (IR) of 93.13%. IR for SLNB was 94.11%, with a false-negative rate (FNR) of 7.4%. After a median follow-up of 31.3 months, we obtained a distant disease-free survival rate of 98%. The results obtained by other groups were similar to those of our study, presenting IR in the range 80.8–96.8%, with FNR varying from 0 to 22%. (4) Conclusions: on conclusion, SLNB can accurately determine the lymph node status, with an acceptable FNR and maintain its expected prognostic role with low recurrence rates, and our results are comparable to those obtained by other studies.

Keywords

• lymphoscintigraphy
• sentinel lymph node biopsy
• breast cancer
• neoadjuvant chemotherapy