Table 2. Primary and secondary endpoints of patients who underwent a sentinel node procedure pre-neoadjuvant chemotherapy or who first received neoadjuvant chemotherapy before axillary staging, categorized by baseline clinical nodal stage.
| Baseline cN0 | Baseline cN+ | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SN pre-NAC | NAC first | NAC first | ||||||
| Total | SN post-NAC | ALND without SN | Total | SN post-NAC | ALND without SN | |||
| N = 163 (%) | N = 67(%) | N = 41 (%) | N = 26 (%) | N = 209(%) | N = 34 (%) | N = 175 (%) | ||
| Pathological nodal status (SN) | ||||||||
| pN0(i-)/pN0(i+) | 86 (53) | 23 (59) | 13 (39) | |||||
| pN1mi | 20 (12) | 3 (8) | 7 (21) | |||||
| pNmacro | 57 (35) | 13 (33) | 13 (39) | |||||
| uk | 0 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Pathological nodal status (SN + ALND) | ||||||||
| pN0(i-)/pN0(i+) | 83 (51) | 37 (56) | 23 (58) | 14 (54) | 48 (23) | 5 (15) | 43 (25) | |
| pN1mi | 19 (12) | 5 (8) | 3 (7) | 2 (8) | 30 (14) | 6 (18) | 24 (14) | |
| pN1macro | 61 (37) | 24 (36) | 14 (35) | 10 (38) | 129 (62) | 22 (65) | 107 (61) | |
| uk | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
Abbreviations: SN, sentinel node; ALND, axillary lymph node dissection; NAC, neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Baseline cN0 and cN+ based on ultrasound plus or minus fine needle aspiration; Patients who underwent both SN pre-NAC and post-NAC were classified under SN pre-NAC; uk, unknown.