Table 5.
Outcomes of clinically node negative patients receiving sentinel lymph node biopsy (upper panel) and of hot-node negative patients (lower panel) after median follow-up of 48.16 months.
| cN0 patients | Total N = 750 (%) | Lymph Node (+) pN+, N = 135 (%) | Lymph Node (−) pN-, N = 615 (%) | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recurrence pattern | Overall | ||||
| No | 716 (95.5) | 125 (92.6) | 591 (96.1) | 0.076 | |
| Yes | 34 (4.5) | 10 (7.4) | 24 (3.9) | ||
| Locoregional | |||||
| No | 732 (97.6) | 128 (94.8) | 604 (98.2) | 0.029 | |
| Yes | 18 (2.4) | 7 (5.2) | 11 (1.8) | ||
| Distant metastasis | |||||
| No | 734 (97.9) | 132 (97.8) | 602 (97.9) | >0.999 | |
| Yes | 16 (2.1) | 3 (2.2) | 13 (2.1) | ||
| Breast cancer specific mortality | Yes | 8 (1.1) | 2 (1.5) | 6 (1.0) | 0.640 |
| No | 742 (98.9) | 133 (98.5) | 609 (99.0) | ||
| SLN (−) patients | Total N = 632 (%) |
Non-Hot Node (+) N = 15 (%) |
Non-Hot- Node (−) N = 617 (%) |
p-value | |
| Recurrence pattern | Overall | ||||
| No | 606 (95.9) | 13 (86.7) | 593 (96.1) | 0.123 | |
| Yes | 26 (4.1) | 2 (13.3) | 24 (3.9) | ||
| Locoregional | |||||
| No | 619 (97.9) | 13 (86.7) | 606 (98.2) | 0.035 | |
| Yes | 13 (2.1) | 2 (13.3) | 11 (1.8) | ||
| Distant metastasis | |||||
| No | 619 (97.9) | 15 (100.0) | 604 (97.9) | >0.999 | |
| Yes | 13 (2.1) | 0 | 13 (2.1) | ||
| Breast cancer specific mortality | Yes | 7 (1.1) | 1 (6.7) | 6 (1.0) | 0.155 |
| No | 625 (98.9) | 14 (93.3) | 611 (99.0) | ||
Abbreviations: cN0: clinically node negative; SLN (-): sentinel lymph node negative.