Predictors of axillary node response in node-positive patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Background: The ability to accurately predict which patients will achieve a pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy could help identify those who could safely be spared the potential morbidity of axillary lymph node dissection. We performed a retrospective analysis of a cohort of clinically node-positive patients managed with neoadjuvant chemotherapy with the goal of identifying predictors of axillary pCR.

Methods: Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older, had clinical T1-T4, N1-N3, M0 breast cancer and received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgical axillary lymph node staging between 2001 and 2017 at Misericordia Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta.