Can We Identify or Exclude Extensive Axillary Nodal Involvement in Breast Cancer Patients Preoperatively?

Table 2

Summary of studies on US-guided needle biopsy to exclude patients with extensive nodal involvement.

Study	Year	No. of patients	No. (%) of patients with extensive nodal involvement	No. of false negatives	No. of true negatives	NPV (%)	FNR (%)
Studies in which extensive nodal involvement was defined as pN2-3
US/FNAC
Gipponi et al. [34]	2016	400	42 (10.5%)	15	329	96	36
Wely van et al. [14]	2013	1448	178 (12.3%)	99	1154	92	56
US/CNB
Nijnatten van et al. [27]	2016	377	16 (4.2%)	5	339	99	31
Schipper et al. [26]	2013	577	47 (8.1%)	23	499	94	49
Studies in which extensive nodal involvement was defined as ≥3 positive nodes
US/FNAC
Barco et al. [16]	2016	1506	200 (13.3%)	74	1223	94	37
Farrell et al. [25]	2015	322	29 (9.0%)	9	281	97	31
Hieken et al. [17]	2013	906	76 (8.4%)	34	790	96	45
Kramer et al. [19]	2016	2130	248 (11.6%)	137	1802	93	55
Wallis et al. [35]	2018	769	36 (4.7%)	21	716	97	58
Zhu et al. [28]	2016	445	84 (18.9%)	13	314	96	15
Mean						95	43

US/FNAC = axillary ultrasonography followed by fine-needle aspiration cytology of suspicious nodes; US/CNB = axillary ultrasonography followed by core needle biopsy of suspicious nodes; no. of false negatives = number of patients with normal/negative test but histologically extensive nodal involvement; no. of true negatives = number of patients with normal/negative test and histologically no/limited nodal involvement; NPV = negative predictive value; FNR = false-negative rate.