RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The objective of our study was to assess recurrence after negative sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and to determine the risk factors related to local and distant recurrence in this group of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study from 2006 to 2011. It included 607 patients with early-stage breast cancer and negative SLNB with a 5-year follow-up period. RESULTS: The disease-free survival rate was 98.5% and 96.5% at 2 and 5 years, respectively. Multivariate analysis identified the following prognostic factors for disease recurrence: tumor necrosis (hazard ratio [HR], 4.89; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.61-14.89; P = .005), lymphovascular invasion (HR, 3.46; 95% CI, 1.14-10.55; P = .029), T2 tumor size (HR, 4.35; 95% CI, 1.40-13.52; P = .011), and moderate to severe lymphoplasmacytic stromal infiltration (HR, 3.06; 95% CI, 1.18-7.96; P = .022). CONCLUSION: Recurrence in patients with negative SLNB was satisfactorily low. Nevertheless, determining the prognostic factors related to a greater recurrence rate could help identify high-risk patients and influence systemic adjuvant therapy.