Axillary Recurrence in Sentinel Lymph Node-Negative Breast Cancer Patients in a Tertiary Referral Cancer Centre

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is the standard of care for axillary staging in clinically node-negative breast cancer. SLNB is predictive of axillary node status. Major concern is the occurrence of a false negative SLN. The objective of this study is to determine the rate of axillary recurrence in our series of patients in Indian cohort. The present study was conducted at Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru, a tertiary referral cancer centre in India, from Jan 2008 through December 2018. A total of 496 patients diagnosed with early breast cancer with clinically negative axilla underwent the SLNB procedure using both ICG and dual dye. Four hundred ninety-six patients with negative SLNB did not receive ALND. After a median follow-up of 48.8 months, 18 patients had distant metastases, one had axillary relapse, and 13 had an in-breast recurrence. The patients with axillary recurrence received axillary dissection and systemic adjuvant therapy. Data from this series, thus, showed that isolated axillary node recurrence after negative SLNB is rare (< 1%) and comparable with referral cancer institutions. We confirm that SLNB for the treatment of early breast cancer patients of a tertiary referral hospital is safe and reliable.