Recurrence rates in breast cancer patients with false-negative intraoperative evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes.

Background: Intraoperative identification of sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastases in breast cancer patients results in synchronous axillary lymph node dissection. We examined the effect of false-negative SLN biopsy on breast cancer treatments and recurrence rate.

Methods: Patient and tumor characteristics, intraoperative and final SLN biopsy results, and treatments of patients with and without recurrence were compared.

Results: Recurrence rates for patients with true-positive SLN biopsy (9%) were significantly higher than rates for false-negative SLN biopsy patients (2%). Recurrence rates were significantly higher for patients with primary tumors greater than 2 cm, positive lymph nodes greater than 2 mm, and tumors with negative hormone receptors, and varied with treatment extent.

Conclusions: Patients with greater amounts of disease in the breast and axilla required more treatment and had a higher recurrence rate. False-negative SLN evaluation occurred more commonly in patients with less lymph node metastasis and was not associated with an increased recurrence rate.