Determinants for non-sentinel node metastases in primary invasive breast cancer: A population-based cohort study of 602 consecutive patients with sentinel node metastases

Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) is the standard procedure for axillary staging in patients with clinically lymph node negative invasive breast cancer. Completion axillary lymph node dissection (c-ALND) may not be necessary for all patients as a significant number of patients have no further metastases in non-sentinel nodes (nonSN) and c-ALND may not improve survival.