Does Conservative Surgery for Breast Carcinoma Still Require Axillary Lymph Node Evaluation? A Retrospective Analysis of 1156 Consecutive Women With Early Breast Cancer

The advantage of axillary surgery seems to be limited only to a specific subgroup of T1 patients who are undergoing conservative surgery plus radiotherapy. The ongoing studies on avoiding SLNB will likely prove the noninferiority of omitting biopsy because these studies are conducted in the whole population of early breast cancers. It is necessary to identify more accurately the subpopulation of patients who may benefit from axillary surgery.