Differences in Sentinel Node Biopsy and Targeted Axillary Dissection Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

To the Editor Montagna and colleagues should be congratulated for their effort in assembling a global multi-institutional academic collaboration to address an important clinical question in axillary management. This study demonstrates the oncological safety of axillary surgical de-escalation in node-positive breast cancer that downstages to ypN0 with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). However, the authors’ statement that “surgeons should be reassured that [sentinel node biopsy (SLNB)] with dual-tracer mapping and [targeted axillary dissection (TAD)] have similar outcomes” needs to be interpreted cautiously.

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