Comparing Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients with Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis with and without Completion Axillary Lymph Node Dissection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Heiranizadeh, Naeimeh; Rafiei Shahamabadi, Mohammad; Dehghan, Hamid Reza; Jafari-Nedooshan, Jamal; Kargar, Saeid; Zare, Mohammad; Amooei, Abdolhamid; Shiryazdi, Seyed Mostafa; Broomand, Mohammad Ali; Moravej, Mohammad Taghi; Sadri, Zahra

doi:10.31557/APJCP.2022.23.8.2561

Comparing Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients with Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis with and without Completion Axillary Lymph Node Dissection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Document Type : Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Authors

¹ Department of General Surgery, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran.

² Research Center for Health Technology Assessment and Medical Informatics, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.

³ Department of Radiation Oncology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran.

⁴ Clinical Research Development Center of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd.

10.31557/APJCP.2022.23.8.2561

Abstract

Background: Currently, the standard method for staging and treatment of axillary lymph nodes for early-stage breast cancer is sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), while axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is used in cases with palpable axillary lymph nodes or positive SLNB cases. The aim of this review was to compare overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and axillary recurrence in early-stage breast cancer patients underwent SLNB or SLNB and completion ALND. Methods: The databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were searched using the key words of “breast cancer”, “axillary lymph node dissection”, and “sentinel lymph node dissection”. In addition, other sources were searched for ongoing studies (i.e., clinicaltrials.gov). The clinical trials were evaluated based on the Jadad quality criteria, and cohort studies were evaluated according to the STROBE criteria. At the end of the search, the articles were screened independently by two reviewers to check their eligibility to be included in the study. Afterwards, the data were extracted independently by two researchers. Results: After searching the databases, 169 papers were retrieved. However, after removing the duplicates and studying the titles and abstracts of these papers, only ten ones underwent further investigation. After reading full-text of each article, four studies were finalized. Following a manual search, 27 papers were entered into the study for the final evaluation, 11 of which were included in the meta-analysis based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The findings showed no significant differences in OS, DFS, and axillary recurrence in early-stage breast cancer patients underwent SLNB or SLNB and completion ALND. Conclusion: The findings did not confirm that ALND improved OS, DFS, and axillary recurrence in patients who were clinically node-negative and positive SLNB.

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