7 November 2024

Persistent lymph node involvement in breast cancer after chemotherapy: surgical removal is not always indicated

Affected lymph nodes in the armpit are usually the first sign that a breat cancer disease has spread. Many patients therefore receive chemotherapy before surgery. If this does not eliminate the lymph node involvement, the answer often is a large-scale excision of the armpit. A new study investigated whether this radical surgical procedure is really necessary if only isolated tumor cells are still detectable in the armpit lymph nodes.