Department of breast Surgery, General Surgery Center, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin Province, China , wu_di@jlu.edu.cnÂ
Abstract: (14 Views)
Background:In breast cancer (BC) patients with axillary lymph node (ALN)-negative findings on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT), the prognostic impact of omitting sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was investigated. Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight BC patients were enrolled from four hospitals in Jilin Province from January 2020 to December 2020. Random assignment placed these patients into two groups. In the control group (CG), routine SLNB or ALND was performed. In the observation group (OG), 18F-FDG PET-CT was used for detection of ALN; SLNB was omitted when findings were negative, while ALND was performed if ALN-positive findings were observed. Robot-assisted breast-conserving surgery was performed in both groups. Comparisons were made regarding surgical outcomes, complications, and survival rates. Results: In the CG, twenty-nine patients underwent SLNB, with six cases of sentinel lymph node metastasis, who then received ALND; five patients directly underwent ALND, while one patient did not undergo axillary surgery. In the OG, four patients were found to be ALN-positive on 18F-FDG PET-CT, and these patients underwent ALND. When compared with the CG, the OG had significantly shorter surgery duration and less intraoperative blood loss (P<0.05). The OG demonstrated significantly shorter surgery duration and reduced intraoperative blood loss compared with the CG (P<0.05). No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in recurrence-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival, progression-free survival, or overall survival (P>0.05). Conclusion: Based on 18F-FDG PET-CT findings, omitting SLNB reduces surgical trauma and complications, and does not compromise prognosis.