Incidence and Impact of Documented Eradication of Breast Cancer Axillary Lymph Node Metastases Before Surgery in Patients Treated With Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can completely clear the axilla of microscopic disease before surgery, and occult metastases are found in only 10% of patients with a histologically negative axilla. The results of this study have implications for the potential use of sentinel lymph node biopsy as an alternative to axillary dissection in patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.