Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38489166›Full record

ArticleBreast disease2024

Use of axillary ultrasound to guide breast cancer management in the genomic assay era.

Geok Hoon Lim, John Carson Allen, Yien Sien Lee, Sze Yiun Teo, Li Ching Lau, Thida Win, Lester Chee Hao Leong

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Breast disease, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 44% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Geok Hoon LimBreast Department, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
John Carson AllenDuke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
Yien Sien LeeDepartment of Diagnostic & Interventional Imaging, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
Sze Yiun TeoDepartment of Diagnostic & Interventional Imaging, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
Li Ching LauDepartment of Diagnostic & Interventional Imaging, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
Thida WinDepartment of Diagnostic & Interventional Imaging, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
Lester Chee Hao LeongDepartment of Diagnostic Radiology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
KK Women's and Children's Hospital · SGDuke-NUS Medical School · SGSingapore General Hospital · SG

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionChemotherapy is conventionally offered to non-stage IV breast cancer patients with metastatic nodes. However, the RxPONDER trial showed that chemotherapy can be omitted in selected patients with 1-3 metastatic nodes if the 21-gene assay recurrence score is ≤25. We aimed to investigate if axillary ultrasound can identify this group of patients with limited nodal burden so that they can undergo upfront surgery followed by gene assay testing, to potentially avoid chemotherapy.

methodsT1-3, node positive, hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer patients ≥50 years old with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) were reviewed from 2 centres. Patients with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and bilateral cancers were excluded. Number of ultrasound-detected abnormal axillary nodes, demographic and histological parameters were correlated with the number of metastatic nodes found on ALND.

results138 patients were included, 59 (42.8%) and 79 (57.2%) patients had 1-3 and >3 metastatic nodes on ALND respectively. On logistic regression and ROC analysis, the number of ultrasound-detected abnormal nodes was significant (p < 0.001) for predicting limited nodal burden (ROC AUC = 0.7135). Probabilities of <4 metastatic nodes with ultrasound cut-offs of 5, 6 and 8 abnormal nodes were 0.057, 0.026 and 0.005 respectively, with 100% specificity.

conclusionA cut-off of ≤5 ultrasound-detected abnormal nodes can distinguish between patients with limited versus high nodal burden, with high specificity. Hence, incorporating the number of abnormal ultrasound-detected nodes into clinical practice may prove useful in guiding between upfront surgery and gene assay testing or neoadjuvant chemotherapy in this group of patients.

Indexed as

Breast NeoplasmsAxillaFemaleGenomicsHumansLymphatic MetastasisLymph Node ExcisionLymph NodesMiddle AgedNeoadjuvant TherapySentinel Lymph Node Biopsyaxillary ultrasoundBreast cancergenomic assayneoadjuvant chemotherapy

Identifiers

PMID38489166
PMCPMC10977404
OpenAlexW4392865037

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.