Number of lymph nodes removed in sentinel lymph node-negative breast cancer patients is significantly related to patient age and tumor size: a new source of bias in morbidity assessment?
The morbidity of SLN biopsy is less than that of ALND, but for pN0 patients, the total number of lymph nodes removed increased with tumor size and younger patient age. This variation is a previously unrecognized source of bias for studies that examine the morbidity of SLN biopsy.
The data support water as the best decontaminating solution. It has been shown to be efficacious in clinical trials, is widely available, and inexpensive.