Whole breast radiotherapy in cN0 early breast cancer patients with pathological sentinel lymph nodes (pN1mic, pN1a) without axillary dissection: preliminary results of the observational LISEN trial

Purpose Axillary management remains unclear when sentinel lymph node (SLN) results are positive in cN0 patients with breast cancer (BC). The trial ACOSOG Z0011 represented a revolution with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) omission in SLN+ patients, despite critiques regarding non-uniformity of radiation fields. We conducted an observational study (LISEN) where whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT) was planned with tangential fields without nodal irradiation in patients eligible for the Z0011 trial. Methods Inclusion criteria were female patients with histologically proven BC, cT1-2cN0, planned conservative surgery, no neoadjuvant therapy. Patients were stratified into two groups: micrometastatic (pN1mic, group 1) and macrometastatic (pN1a, group 2) lymph nodes. Tangential field WBRT was mandatory. Clinical outcomes were analysed, measured from surgery until the first event. Results In all, 199 patients underwent conservative surgery and SLN biopsy; 133 patients meeting criteria were analysed: 41 patients (30.8%) pN1mic and 92 (69.2%) pN1a. The 5‑year disease-free survival (DFS) was 95.0% (85.9–100%) in group 1 and 93.0% (86.3–100.0%) in group 2 (p = 0.78). Overall survival (OS) was 100% (100–100%) in group 1 and 97.4% (92.4–100%) in group 2 (p = 0.74). For the whole cohort DFS and OS were 93.6% (88.2–99.4%) and 96.9% (91.5–100.0%), respectively. For groups 1 and 2, the 5‑year outcomes were 5.0% (0.0–14.4%) and 2.3% (0.0–6.1%) for local recurrence (p = 0.51), and 6.2% (0.0–17.4%) and 7.0% (0.0–13.7%) for distant metastasis (p = 0.61), respectively. In group 1, regional recurrence (RR) and local regional recurrence (LRR) were 5.0% (0.0–14.1%; p = 0.13). In group 2, RR and LRR were 0.0% (0.0–0.0%). Conclusion Our results showed good regional control in patients who met the Z0011 trial criteria. WBRT, without nodal surgery or RT, avoiding axillary morbidity, seems to be a good choice.