Breast cancer subtypes can be determinant in the decision making process to avoid surgical axillary staging: A retrospective cohort study.

Abstract Introduction The need for performing axillary lymph-node dissection in early breast cancer when the sentinel lymph node (SLN) is positive has been questioned in recent years. The purpose of this study was to identify a low-risk subgroup of early breast cancer patients in whom surgical axillary staging could be avoided, and to assess the probability of having a positive lymph-node (LN). Methods We evaluated the cohort of 612 consecutive women affected by early breast cancer. We considered age, tumor size, histological grade, vascular invasion, lymphatic invasion and cancer subtype (Luminal A, Luminal B HER-2+, Luminal B HER-2−, HER-2+, and Triple Negative) as variables for univariat…