Nonsentinel node metastases in breast cancer patients with isolated tumor cells in the sentinel node: implications for completion axillary node dissection

When ALND was performed for ITC, 1.6% of non-SLNs harbored macrometastases and 3.3% had micrometastases. When ALND was not performed, axillary recurrence was not seen. The low risk of non-SLN disease in this study fails to support the routine use of ALND for ITC-positive SLNs.