Sentinel lymph node biopsy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in inflammatory breast cancer.

Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) demonstrates promising results as an accurate alternative to axillary lymph node dissection in patients with locally advanced breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). However and in the view of the insufficient data on women with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), SLNB is not recommended in this situation. The current study assessed identification and false-negative rates of SLNB after NAC for patients with IBC.

Methods: Between 2006 and 2009, twenty consecutive patients with clinically negative nodes after NAC for IBC (T4d) and who underwent SLNB and axillary lymph node dissection (levels I and II) by the same operator were assessed. Intraoperative Sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed with patent blue dye injections.

Results: The SLN could be identified in 16 of 20 patients (identification rate, 80%), the median of SLN removed per patient was 2 (range 1-3); nine (56%) had positive SLNB, and in 2 of those 9 patients (22%), the SLN was the only positive node with otherwise negative axillary nodes. Two (18%) patients' SLNB were false negative.

Conclusions: The SLN identification and false-negative rates after NAC for IBC were unacceptably high and based on the current findings, SLNB without systematic axillary lymph node dissection is unsuitable in this patient population.