Effects of the Number of Removed Lymph Nodes on Survival Outcome in Patients With Sentinel Node-negative Breast Cancer.

Abstract Background It is still uncertain what is the optimal number of sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) to be removed to reduce the false negative rate. The aim of this study was to investigate whether patients with a single negative SLN have a worse prognosis than those with two or more negative SLNs.Methods A retrospective review was conducted on a large series of SLN-negative breast cancer patients. Survival outcomes were evaluated according to the number of removed SLNs. Statistical analysis included Chi-square, Wilcoxon Mann Whitney test and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis.Results There was no relevant difference in median DFS (64.9 vs 41.4) for SLN=1 vs SLN>1 groups (HR 0.76, CI 95% 0.39 – 1.46; p = 0.38). A statistically significant difference in mDFS was showed only for HT treated patients who were SLN= 1 if compared to SLN>1 (100.6 months versus 35.3 months). Conclusions Our results showed no relevant difference in median DFS for SLN=1 vs SLN>1 group, except for a subset of the patients treated with hormone therapy.