title: An axillary recurrence of breast cancer following a negative sentinel lymph node biopsy.
abstract: In many parts of the United States, lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy has almost replaced axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) as the axillary staging procedure of choice for small, clinically node-negative breast cancers. However, the long-term outcome of patients undergoing a sentinel lymph node biopsy as the only axillary procedure in patients with tumor-free sentinel nodes remains to be determined. We present the first reported case of axillary recurrence in a patient with breast cancer following a tumor-negative sentinel lymph node biopsy. Whether sentinel lymph node biopsy can replace ALND in the management of patients with early breast cancer remains to be answered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Tina W F
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: Gary N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Lawton
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Livingston
authors.forename: Benjamin O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy