New trends in the surgical treatment of axilla in breast cancer

Abstract

Oncosurgical treatment of breast tumors involves the removal of metastatic axillary lymph nodes. In the last 30 years, the diagnosis and treatment of axillary lymph nodes have also undergone significant changes. The introduction of sentinel lymph node biopsy in 1993 made axillary block dissection with high morbidity safely omitted in a significant proportion of patients, and similarly, the staging of breast tumors and thus oncology and complex treatment became significantly more accurate. Shortly after the introduction of sentinel lymph node biopsy, intraoperative examination of sentinel lymph nodes (e.g. imprint cytology) also appeared, which significantly reduced the number of surgeries performed in the two sessions, thereby significantly reducing patient burden and surgical costs. The results of our study indicate that axillary block dissection is required in the treatment of axilla in an ever-decreasing group of patients and this proportion will decrease further in the future, with the increasing use of alternative axillary radiotherapy. The imprint cytological examination of sentinel lymph nodes taking into account current guidelines, no longer provides demonstrable benefits and its routine use is not justified. According to the latest international recommendations, intraoperative examination of the sentinel lymph node may be indicated in connection with mastectomy (when postoperative radiotherapy is not planned) and after neoadjuvant treatment. Our results suggest that the detection of suspected lymph nodes during preoperative axillary ultrasound may predict the stage of the disease. Based on our research results confirm that in patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy, in addition to the preoperative size of the tumour (≤20 mm,P= 0.002), the preoperative size of the lymph node (≤15 mm,P= 0.04) may also be used to predict that the stage of the disease is N0-1.