Figure 1.
Algorithm for patient selection.
The Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results 1998–2009 database was used to identify patients diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC). Patients were excluded if their disease stage was unknown, if they had stage III or stage IV disease, if their follow-up time was less than 24 months, if they did not undergo surgery, underwent mastectomy or did not receive radiation as a component of breast conserving therapy. Patients who underwent breast conserving therapy (BCT) who had more than 2 positive lymph nodes were also excluded. This left a final study cohort of 1,269 patients with T1–T2 ILC with 1–2 positive lymph nodes who underwent BCT.
Table 1.
Comparison of clinicopathologic characteristics between patients with T1–T2 ILC and 1–2 positive lymph nodes undergoing SLND alone and those undergoing ALND.
Figure 2.
Survival outcomes for patients with T1–T2 ILC with 1–2 positive lymph nodes who underwent breast conserving therapy.
No differences were identified in overall survival (A) or disease-specific survival (B) for patients who underwent sentinel lymph node dissection alone compared to those who underwent axillary lymph node dissection.
Table 2.
Overall and disease-specific survival of patients with T1-T2 invasive lobular carcinoma and 1-2 positive lymph nodes who underwent breast conserving therapy.
Figure 3.
Survival outcomes based on the number of positive lymph nodes.
Overall survival (A and B) and disease-specific survival (C and D) were not different among patients who underwent SLND alone and those who underwent ALND for patients with one positive lymph node (A and C) or two positive lymph nodes (B and D).
Table 3.
Univariate analysis of prognostic factors for disease-specific survival and overall survival in patients with T1-T2 invasive lobular carcinoma and 1-2 positive lymph nodes who underwent breast conserving therapy.
Table 4.
Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors for disease-specific survival and overall survival in patients with T1–T2 invasive lobular carcinoma and 1-2 positive lymph nodes who underwent BCT.