Extracapsular extension of the sentinel lymph node metastasis: a predictor of nonsentinel node tumor burden

To identify predictors of nonsentinel node (NSN) tumor involvement in patients with a tumor-involved sentinel node (SN). For many breast cancer patients who undergo intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy (LM/SL), the SN is the only tumor-involved axillary node. Associations between NSN tumor involvement and several clinical and histopathologic factors have been identified. The authors hypothesize that extracapsular extension (ECE) of the SN metastasis is highly predictive of NSN tumor involvement. Between May 1998 and December 2001, 260 patients (263 cases) with clinical T1 or T2 (