Omitting ALND Is Not Safe for a Cohort of Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients with 1–2 SLNs Macro-Metastases and Breast-Conserving Therapy: A Single-Center Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND: Omitting axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is recommended for early-stage breast cancer patients with 1–2 sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) macro-metastases and breast-conserving therapy. However, it is not safe for part of patients, so it is significant to find risk factors and develop a predictive model of non-SLNs metastases in breast cancer patients with 1–2 SLNs macro-metastases and breast-conserving therapy. METHODS: This retrospective study enrolled 228 breast cancer patients with 1–2 SLNs macro-metastases who underwent ALND and breast-conserving surgery between Jan 2012 and Dec 2017 at Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Chi-square test and backward stepwise binary logistic regression were used to find factors that influenced non-SLN metastases, then a predictive model was formulated and obtained its area under the curve. RESULTS: Tumor pathologic invasion size, number of positive SLNs and ALN status on imaging was associated with non-SLNs metastases. The predictive model was also formulated based on these three factors to assess and the area under the curve of model was 0.708. CONCLUSION: We developed a predictive model to assess the high-risk cohort of patients of non-SLNs metastases which can be an auxiliary tool for doctors.