De-escalation of Axillary Dissection for Node-positive Breast Cancer

September 28, 2026 updated by: University of Nebraska

Feasibility of De-escalation of Axillary Surgery in ycN0 Breast Cancer Patients Post NAC for cN2, cN3 Disease: Evaluating the Concordance Between ypN Status From TAD and ALND

Recent studies have demonstrated the safety of de-escalation of nodal surgery for clinically node-positive breast cancer patients after a favorable response to neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST). These studies excluded patients with clinically node-positive stage 2 or 3 (cN2, cN3) disease. Consequently, the current guidelines recommend axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for patients with cN2/cN3 breast cancer, even after a favorable response to NST. Many cN2/cN3 patients achieve nodal pathologic complete response (pCR) after NST, and this has raised interest in less invasive surgical approaches for the management of the axilla in this setting. We aim to evaluate the pathologic concordance between lymph node status post neoadjuvant therapy (ypN) derived from targeted axillary dissection (TAD) and ALND performed sequentially under the same anesthesia in patients with cN2/cN3 who convert to clinically node-negative (ycN0) following completion of NST. If a high level of concordance is determined between the ypN status determined from the TAD and the ALND, our next step would be to expand the trial to include a larger number of patients, making it multi-institutional, in order to power the study for more meaningful analysis.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

20

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

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

19 years to 99 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Females
  2. Aged ≥ 19 years old at time of study entry.
  3. Patient must be able to provide study-specific informed consent prior to study enrolment.
  4. Histological confirmation of breast cancer diagnosis on core needle biopsy. Pathology will be confirmed by internal UNMC review if the biopsy was completed at an outside institution.
  5. Clinical and/or radiographic cT1-T4 N2-3 M0 disease.
  6. Patients must complete NST. Patients who complete all recommended cycles of NST, regardless of dose reductions, are eligible.
  7. Clinical and radiographic (breast MRI with and without contrast) re-evaluation following completion of NST.
  8. Achievement of a complete clinical and radiographic nodal response (ycN0).

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Patients with metastatic disease at presentation.
  2. Patients unable to complete the recommended NST.
  3. Patients who are pregnant.
  4. Patients with a known allergic reaction to injectable blue dye.

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment

TAD + ALND
Procedure: TAD+ALND

do alnd after tad

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
To evaluate the pathologic concordance between pathologic nodal status (ypN) derived from targeted axillary dissection (TAD) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND.)
Time Frame: 1 month

Pathologic concordance between pathologic nodal status derived from TAD and ALND will be determined based on the pathological results of the two specimens collected.
1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Nebraska

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Janelle-Cheri Millen, MBBS, University of Nebraska

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 (Estimated)

October 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 15, 2030

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 15, 2031

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 28, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 28, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

October 2, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 28, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 750-26-FB

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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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