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Updated: Apr 17, 2026
Single-port Non-liposuction Endoscopic Axillary Lymph Node Dissection in Breast Cancer Surgery
Published on: April 3, 2026
Predictive factors for additional non-sentinel lymph node involvement in breast cancer patients with one positive
Icro Meattini1, Calogero Saieva, Silvia Bertocci
1Department of Radiation-Oncology, University of Florence, Florence - Italy.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to identify a subgroup of breast cancer patients in whom it is possible to avoid axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) when the sentinel lymph node (SLN) is positive.
Methods:
A series of 292 patients treated with breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy underwent ALND after positive SLN detection. To correlate SLN metastasis with the chances of finding additional metastasis in non-SLNs we evaluated the main clinicopathological characteristics. No patients received adjuvant radiotherapy to the axillary region.
Results:
Fifty-six patients (35.4%) with positive SLNs for macrometastases (n = 158) had additional metastases upon completion ALND compared with 7 patients (5.2%) with micrometastases in the SLN (n = 132). Cases with a higher number of positive axillary lymph nodes tended to have higher pT stage (p = 0.004). In multivariate analysis, pT was confirmed as an independent predictor of non-SLN metastases (OR = 2.40; 95% CI = 1.16-4.99). No patients with micrometastases in SLN and cancer lt;10 mm had additional positive non-SLNs.
Conclusions:
Our results, in agreement with the major published studies, suggest that ALND can be avoided in selected patients without the need for additional treatment to the axillary region.
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