Axillary surgery in oncologic breast surgery: a narrative review

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: With the improved survival for breast cancer there is now an increased focus on quality of life after treatment. Axillary surgery is known to be associated with significant risk of arm morbidity feared by the patients, and several studies have shown de-escalation is possible in different settings. In this review, an overview will be given on new techniques and procedures for de-escalation of axillary surgery in breast cancer patients and the subsequent implications for adjuvant systemic treatment.

METHODS: This study is a narrative review. PubMed was searched for relevant publications in English published between January 2018-June 2023. Only publications with major impact on clinical practice have been included with main emphasis on meta-analysis. In addition, Clinicaltrial.gov has been searched for on-going studies.

KEY CONTENT AND FINDINGS: New tracer techniques are described as well as the on-going reduction in axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) at primary surgery even in node positive patients, and the axillary staging possibilities after down-staging of the axilla by neoadjuvant treatment. Finally axillary staging at local recurrence and in case of ductal carcinoma in situ is described.

CONCLUSIONS: ALND is no longer routinely recommended in many node positive patients and further de-escalation is investigated. The lack of knowledge on precise axillary status will require cooperating studies between oncologists and breast surgeons in order to avoid escalation of systemic treatment due to the lack of applicability of trial eligibility criteria. Furthermore, investigations on the use of axillary imaging for staging are needed.