Does Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction Decrease the Risk of Lymphedema After Axillary Lymph Node Dissection

February 25, 2026 updated by: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

A Randomized Controlled Trial: Does Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction Decrease the Incidence of Lymphedema After Axillary Lymph Node Dissection

The researchers are doing this study to see if having immediate lymphatic reconstruction after axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) can decrease the development of lymphedema, a side effect of ALND. Other purposes of the study include:

Comparing the approach of immediate lymphatic reconstruction after ALND with the approach of ALND alone Looking at whether having immediate lymphatic reconstruction after ALND improves a person's quality of life Seeing if adding standard of care radiation therapy to either study approach (immediate lymphatic reconstruction after ALND or ALND alone) has an effect on development of lymphedema

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

180

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New Jersey
      • Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States, 07920
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (Consent and Followup)
      • Middletown, New Jersey, United States, 07748
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (Consent Only)
      • Montvale, New Jersey, United States, 07645
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (Consent Only)
    • New York
      • Commack, New York, United States, 11725
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Commack (Consent Only)
      • Harrison, New York, United States, 10604
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester (Consent only)
      • New York, New York, United States, 10065
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
      • Uniondale, New York, United States, 11553
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau (Consent Only)

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Female breast cancer patients 18-75 years of age
  • Patients consenting for unilateral ALND (prior history of SLNBx allowed if <6 months from consent) OR patients consenting for unilateral SLNBx with possible ALND, with a clinically or radiographically positive lymph node OR a high likelihood of ALND per the Breast Surgeon
  • Identification of at least one transected lymphatic channel and at least one vein to be used for bypass at the time of ALND during surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Male breast cancer patients
  • Non-English speaking participants
  • Female breast cancer patients with axillary recurrence
  • Female breast cancer patients who have a history of ALND
  • Female patients requiring bilateral ALND for the treatment of their breast cancer
  • Female breast patients treated with SLNBx only

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: axillary lymph node dissection with ILR
Procedure: Axillary Lymph Node Dissection with Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction
Axillary Lymph Node Dissection with Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction
Other: quality-of-life questionnaires
Four validated patient reported outcome measures (PROMs): the Upper Limb Lymphedema-27 (ULL-27), the Quality of Life Measure for Limb Lymphedema (LYMQOL), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Study participants will undergo standard lymphedema measurements and quality-of-life questionnaires at baseline before ALND and postoperatively at 6 weeks (+/- 30 days) and at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months (+/- 30 days). If patients are unable to complete their questionnaires at the time of their in-office visit, a link to the questionnaires in REDCap will be emailed to them.
Other: measured by arm volume
Bilateral arm volumes will be measured with sequential circumferential measurements with the truncated cone formula. If a patient cannot return to Manhattan for these assessments but is seen by a lymphedema therapist in a regional location or at an institution outside of MSK as part of their routine cancer treatment, this data can be used in the final analysis
Active Comparator: axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) without ILR
Other: quality-of-life questionnaires
Four validated patient reported outcome measures (PROMs): the Upper Limb Lymphedema-27 (ULL-27), the Quality of Life Measure for Limb Lymphedema (LYMQOL), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Study participants will undergo standard lymphedema measurements and quality-of-life questionnaires at baseline before ALND and postoperatively at 6 weeks (+/- 30 days) and at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months (+/- 30 days). If patients are unable to complete their questionnaires at the time of their in-office visit, a link to the questionnaires in REDCap will be emailed to them.
Other: measured by arm volume
Bilateral arm volumes will be measured with sequential circumferential measurements with the truncated cone formula. If a patient cannot return to Manhattan for these assessments but is seen by a lymphedema therapist in a regional location or at an institution outside of MSK as part of their routine cancer treatment, this data can be used in the final analysis
Procedure: Axillary Lymph Node Dissection without Immediate Lymphatic Reconstruction
Current standard treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering [MSK]).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
the number of patients that had a decrease incidence of lymphedema
Time Frame: up to 2 years
as measured by arm volume will be a ≥10% increase in arm volume
up to 2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michelle Coriddi, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 22, 2020

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 22, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 24, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 25, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 20-021

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and the ethical obligation of responsible sharing of data from clinical trials. The protocol summary, a statistical summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required as a condition of Federal awards, other agreements supporting the research and/or as otherwise required. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 12 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: crdatashare@mskcc.org.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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