Characteristics and risk factors of axillary lymph node metastasis of microinvasive breast cancer

To select patients who would benefit most from sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) by investigating the characteristics and risk factors of axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) in microinvasive breast cancer (MIBC).

This retrospective study included 1688 patients with MIBC who underwent breast surgery with axillary staging at the Asan Medical Center from 1995 to 2020.

Most patients underwent SLNB alone (83.5%). Seventy (4.1%) patients were node-positive, and the majority had positive lymph nodes < 10 mm, with micro-metastases occurring frequently (n = 37; 55%). Node-positive patients underwent total mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) more than breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and SLNB compared with node-negative patients (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, independent predictors of ALNM included young age [odds ratio (OR) 0.959; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.927–0.993; p = 0.019], ALND (OR 11.486; 95% CI 5.767–22.877; p < 0.001), number of lymph nodes harvested (≥ 5) (OR 3.184; 95% CI 1.555–6.522; p < 0.001), lymphovascular invasion (OR 6.831; 95% CI 2.386–19.557; p < 0.001), presence of multiple microinvasion foci (OR 2.771; 95% CI 1.329–5.779; p = 0.007), prominent lymph nodes in preoperative imaging (OR 2.675; 95% CI 1.362–5.253; p = 0.004), and hormone receptor positivity (OR 2.491; 95% CI 1.230–5.046; p = 0.011).

Low ALNM rate (4.1%) suggests that routine SLNB for patients with MIBC is unnecessary but can be valuable for patients with specific risk factors. Ongoing trials for omitting SLNB in early breast cancer, and further subanalyses focusing on rare populations with MIBC are necessary.