| Objectives. To define a subgroup of sentinel lymph node positive breast cancer patients who can safely decline an axillary lymph node dissection after sentinel lymph node biopsy. PATIENTS &;Results. We found that hematoxylin and eosin sentinel lymph node detection method, extracapsular extension, sentinel lymph node metastasis size ≥10 mm and tumor size >5 cm were predictors of axillary positivity. One of the nomograms was validated, with an area under the curve of 0.71198.;Conclusions. Micrometastasis in sentinel lymph nodes was not associated with axillary disease. No subgroup was identified who could safely decline an axillary lymph node dissection. Secondly, one of the three nomograms was validated.;Methods. Ninety-six cases from 2002--2007 were reviewed. Clinical and pathologic variables were assessed through univariate and multivariate logistic regression. The predictive accuracy of published nomograms in predicting die likelihood axillary lymph node positivity was tested through receiver operator curve analysis. |
