Early recurrence of breast cancer after sentinel node navigation surgery: A multicenter prospective study in Japan
e11530 Background: To assess lymphatic mapping technique and prognosis after sentinel node navigation surgery (SNNS), the Japanese society for SNNS conducted a non-randomized multi-center prospective study on SNNS in early breast cancer. Primary endpoint is to evaluate the success rate and adverse events of SNNS, and secondary endpoint is to observe the outcome of patients who underwent SNNS during 5 years. Methods: We demonstrated the results of primary endpoint at 2007 ASCO annual meeting (#606). Fourteen hundred and sixty-eight cases had pre-registration from 65 investigators at 23 institutions between July 2004 and October 2005. As 46 cases were withdrawn for some reasons and 11 cases were diagnosed as benign disease, 1,411 cases were entered in this study and will be observed until 2010. At this meeting, early recurrence at 3 years follow-up is reported. Results: As of June 2008, 38 of the 1,138 cases (3%) treated with SNNS alone and 16 of the 258 (6%) cases treated with SNNS followed by axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) relapsed. Seven cases died of disease. From the patient background, 50 cases had invasive ductal carcinoma, one had non-invasive ductal carcinoma, and three had special type. Thirty-three cases had negative nodes, 3 had micrometastatic nodes, and 18 had macrometastatic nodes. Fifty-two cases received chemotherapy and/or endocrine therapy. Regional recurrence including axillary, parasternal, and/or supraclavicular nodes was found in 11 cases after SNNS and in 2 cases after SNNS followed by ALND. Conclusions: Annual regional recurrence rate after SNNS was about 0.3%. SNNS in breast cancer is reliable to optimize surgical management in the axilla without increase of regional recurrence. No significant financial relationships to disclose.