Mehran Habibi

years than ever in the past. Management of the axilla in breast cancer patients has evolved from routine axi llary lymph node dissection (ALND) for all patients to a highly selective approa ch based on the assessment of the sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) as well as tumor and patient characteristics. Although ALND continues to have an important rol e in staging and regional control for many breast cancer patients, recent trial res ults question the need for routine ALND in patients who have positive SLNs. A pproximately 40 percent of patients with a positive sentinel lymph node (SLN)will be found to have residual disease in the axilla