Personalizing Treatment of Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Emiel J. Rutgers, MD, surgical oncologist, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, describes the personalization of treatment for patients with early-stage breast cancer.

Clinical Pearls

In this group of patients, a physician must look at the results of a sentinel node biopsy and consider the primary tumor characteristics. If there is low tumor involvement, a physician would most likely determine that no treatment of the axial is adequate. If a patient has more tumor involvement in the sentinel nodes and larger tumor burden in the breast, elective treatment of the axilla with radiotherapy is a good strategy.

• In patients with low tumor involvement, no treatment of the axilla is adequate
• In patients with more tumor involvement in the sentinel nodes, elective treatment of the axilla with radiotherapy is a good strategy