Dr. Caudle Describes the ACOSOG Z1071 Study

Abigail S. Caudle, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, describes the ACOSOG Z1071 study in breast cancer.

The Z1071 study looked at clinically node positive women who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, then sentinel lymph node dissection, followed by axillary lymph node dissection. This study aimed to analyze the false-negative rate of a sentinel lymph node dissection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which was defined as the group of patients who were positive for residual disease by axillary lymph node dissection but negative by sentinal lymph node.

The study looked at N1 patients who had one or two sentinel lymph nodes removed and found a false-negative rate of 12.6%. This data is thought-provoking, Caudle believes, and she anticipates the release of the full manuscript, which will provide further information on subset analyses.