Prognosis of early breast cancer sentinel lymph node negative patients with axillary lymphadenec-tomy

Objective To compare the prognosis of early breast cancer patients with negative sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) treated only by sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and SLNB plus axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). Methods A retrospective analysis of early breast cancer patients in our hospital from January 2005 to December 2010 with negative SLN (only SLNB in 241 cases and SLNB+ALND in 220 cases) was carried out. According to the clinical and pathological data, we compared postop-erative complications and long-term prognosis in the two groups. Results The average postoperative hos-pital stay of NALND group and ALND group was (5.2±1.3) d and (8.1±1.8) d (t=1.450, P=0.003), respec-tively, upper extremity with abnormal sensation after resection was 3.7% (9/241) and 73.2% (161/220) (χ2=283.239, P<0.000 1), and upper limb edema was 0 (0/241) and 10.9% (24/220) (χ2=7.735, P<0.000 1), and the differences were statistically significant. 5-year disease free survival rates of two groups were 95.4% and 95.5% (χ2=0.231, P=0.902). Conclusions Patients undergoing only SLNB without ALND has less trauma and less postoperative complications than ALND in early breast cancer of negative SLN, and the long-term efficacy is comparable to ALND. We propose it is not necessary to carry out ALND for early breast cancer patients with negative SLN. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Sentinel lymph node biopsy; Lymph node excision; Prognosis