Sentinel node biopsy in early breast cancer. A review on recent and ongoing randomized trials

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB) is regarded as the standard procedure for nodal staging in patients with early breast cancer. In the last decade several randomized trials have been evaluating its role and indications.

This article reviews recent and ongoing randomized trials on SLNB.

Four randomized controlled trials have recently shown evidence that SLNB either alone or followed by radiation therapy is effective for the management in patients with low axillary tumor burden in early breast cancer. Nine randomized controlled trials on SLNB are ongoing: four assessing its role in case of positive sentinel node, three evaluating whether SLNB itself can be omitted when the preoperative nodal imaging is negative, two are studying SLNB in the neoadjuvant setting.

SLNB either alone or with axillary radiotherapy has been shown to be non-inferior to complete axillary dissection in terms of local recurrence, disease-free survival and overall survival in early breast cancer with minimally metastatic axilla. So far, results from ongoing trials are going to confirm the appropriate treatment in patients with limited axillary nodal involvement, the role and the timing of SLNB within the neoadjuvant setting and to define whether surgery can be avoided in the axilla in early stage breast cancer patients with negative preoperative imaging.