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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
Single-port Non-liposuction Endoscopic Axillary Lymph Node Dissection in Breast Cancer Surgery
Published on: April 3, 2026
Sentinel node biopsy compared with complete axillary dissection for staging early breast cancer with clinically
G Canavese1, A Catturich, C Vecchio
1Surgical Senology Unit, National Cancer Research Institute, Genoa, Italy.
Background:
Sentinel lymph node (SLN) staging is currently used to avoid complete axillary dissection in breast cancer patients with negative SLNs. Evidence of a similar efficacy, in terms of survival and regional control, of this strategy as compared with axillary resection is based on few clinical trials. In 1998, we started a randomized study comparing the two strategies, and we present here its results.
Materials And Methods:
Patients were randomly assigned to sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and axillary dissection [axillary lymph node dissection (ALND arm)] or to SLNB plus axillary resection if SLNs contained metastases (SLNB arm). Main end points were overall survival (OS) and axillary recurrence.
Results:
One hundred and fifteen patients were assigned to the ALND arm and 110 to the SLNB arm. A positive SLN was found in 27 patients in the ALND arm and in 31 in the SLNB arm. Overall accuracy of SLNB was 93.0%. Sensitivity and negative predictive values were 77.1% and 91.1%, respectively. At a median follow-up of 5.5 years, no axillary recurrence was observed in the SLNB arm. OS and event-free survival were not statistically different between the two arms.
Conclusions:
The SLNB procedure does not appear inferior to conventional ALND for the subset of patients here considered.
