Spijkenisse

Researchers are studying breast cancer patients who have cancer that has spread to lymph nodes and are treated with neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST), which includes chemotherapy and sometimes immunotherapy. The study focuses on how to best check and treat the lymph nodes after NST, comparing less invasive methods to the traditional axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). The goal is to see if less invasive techniques can offer similar cancer control and quality of life benefits. This multicenter observational study includes patients with positive lymph nodes who receive NST followed by breast and axillary treatment. Data on patient characteristics, tumor details, staging before and after NST, and treatments will be collected into a national database. Patients will complete quality of life questionnaires at diagnosis, and then 1 and 5 years later to understand the impact of different axillary treatment strategies. Participants will be followed for 5 years to evaluate disease-free survival, breast cancer-specific survival, overall survival, and rates of cancer returning in the lymph nodes. Quality of life will be measured using multiple questionnaires over time. The study aims to provide evidence to improve national guidelines and support shared decision-making about axillary treatment options for node positive breast cancer patients.