POSNOC

The standard surgical treatment for breast cancer involves surgery such as mastectomy, or excision of a tumour from the breast and also the removal of one or two “sentinel” lymph nodes from the armpit. The nodes are examined to check if cancer cells are present. If breast cancer has spread to the lymph nodes women may undergo a second operation to remove all the lymph nodes in the armpit or receive radiotherapy treatment to the armpit. Recent trials suggest that if there is only a limited amount of cancer in 1 or 2 sentinel nodes then further treatment of nodes may be unnecessary. It is possible that the other treatments routinely used in breast cancer treatment are sufficient to treat any remaining traces of cancer in the remaining nodes. If the outcome is the same, it may be possible to safely avoid further surgery (or radiation to the armpit) in these patients. The aim of the POSNOC trial is to find out if further axillary treatment is of benefit in women with macrometastases found in one or two lymph nodes.