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Updated: Jul 19, 2026
Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping and Biopsy for Endometrial Cancer at Early Stage with Laparoscopy
Published on: August 19, 2021
Risk factors for non-sentinel lymph node metastases in patients with breast cancer. The outcome of a
Marieke J Bolster1, Petronella G M Peer, Peter Bult
1Department of Surgery, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center (MC), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Background:
In this multi-institutional prospective study, we evaluated whether we could identify risk factors predictive for non-sentinel lymph node (non-SN) metastases in breast cancer patients with a positive sentinel lymph node (SN).
Methods:
In this multi-institutional study, 541 eligible breast cancer patients were included prospectively.
Results:
The occurrence of non-SN metastases was related to the size of the SN metastasis (P = .02), primary tumor size (P = .001), and lymphovascular invasion (P = .07). The adjusted odds ratio was 3.1 for SN micro-metastasis compared with SN isolated tumor cells, 4.0 for SN macro-metastasis versus SN isolated tumor cells, 3.1 for tumor size (>3.0 cm compared with 3.0 cm, and with vessel invasion.
Conclusion:
We identified three predictive factors for non-SN metastases in breast cancer patients with a positive SN: size of the SN metastasis; primary tumor size; and vessel invasion. We were not able to identify a specific group of patients with a positive SN in whom the risk for non-SN metastases was less than 5%.
