Gene expression profiles in clinically T1-2N0 ER+HER2− breast cancer patients treated with breast-conserving therapy: their added value in case sentinel lymph node biopsy is not performed

Purpose Omitting sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in breast cancer treatment results in patients with unknown positive nodal status and potential risk for systemic undertreatment.

This study aimed to investigate whether gene expression profiles (GEPs) can lower this risk in cT1-2N0 ER+ HER2– breast cancer patients treated with BCT.

Methods Patients were included if diagnosed between 2011 and 2017 with cT1-2N0 ER+ HER2– breast cancer, treated with BCT and SLNB, and in whom GEP was applied.

Adjuvant chemotherapy recommendations based on clinical risk status (Dutch breast cancer guideline of 2020 versus PREDICT v2.1) with and without knowledge on SLNB outcome were compared to GEP outcome.

We examined missing adjuvant chemotherapy indications, and the number of GEPs needed to identify one patient at risk for systemic undertreatment.

Results Of 3585 patients, 2863 (79.9%) had pN0 and 722 (20.1%) pN + disease.

Chemotherapy was recommended in 1354 (37.8% guideline-2020) and 1888 patients (52.7% PREDICT).

Eliminating SLNB outcome ( n  = 722) resulted in omission of chemotherapy recommendation in 475 (35.1% guideline-2020) and 412 patients (21.8% PREDICT).

GEP revealed genomic high risk in 126 (26.5% guideline-2020) and 82 patients (19.9% PREDICT) in case of omitted chemotherapy recommendation in the absence of SLNB.

Extrapolated to the whole group, this concerns 3.5% and 2.3%, respectively, resulting in the need for 28–44 GEPs to identify one patient at risk for systemic undertreatment.

Conclusion If no SLNB is performed, clinical risk status according to the guideline of 2020 and PREDICT predicts a very low risk for systemic undertreatment.

The number of GEPs needed to identify one patient at risk for undertreatment does not justify its standard use.