Different biological and prognostic breast cancer populations identified by FDG-PET in sentinel node-positive patients: Results and clinical implications after eight-years follow-up

Our findings suggest that FDG-PET results reflect intrinsic biologic features of primary BC tumors and have prognostic value with respect to nodal metastases. FDG-PET false negative cases appear to identify less aggressive indolent metastases. The possibility to identify a subgroup of N+ BC patients with an outcome comparable with N− BC patients could reduce the surgical and adjuvant therapeutic intervention.