[18F]FDG PET/MRI vs sentinel node biopsy for axillary staging of early breast cancer patients. A prospective single-arm trial.

Background: Two randomized controlled trials demonstrated the non-inferiority of axillary surgery omission in selected early breast cancer patients. However, clinicians remain hesitant to forgo sentinel lymph node biopsy due to its potential therapeutic implications. A reliable imaging modality for nodal metastases detection could potentially replace surgery. This trial prospectively evaluated the accuracy of hybrid [18F]FDG PET/MRI in detecting axillary lymph nodes macro-metastases in women with early breast cancer.

Methods: This is a prospective interventional single-arm monocentric trial including patients with breast cancer without nodal involvement on standard preoperative imaging and eligible for upfront surgery. Between June 2020 and April 2024 recruited patients underwent [18F]FDG PET/MRI before surgery. Two radiologists and two nuclear medicine physicians, all blinded, independently reviewed the images.

Results: A total of 246 patients were included. Five had bilateral disease, leading to the evaluation of 251 axillae. Mean (SD) age at surgery was 56.3 (10.7) years and mean (SD) tumor size was 17.5 (13.0) mm at final pathology. Macro-metastatic axillary lymph nodes were found in 61 cases (24.3 %). [18F]FDG PET/MRI identified 43 (70.5 %) of these cases, and significantly outperformed both [18F]FDG PET and MRI alone, which identified 36 (59.0 %; p = 0.016) and 25 (41.0 %; p < 0.001) cases, respectively. Negative predictive value was higher for [18F]FDG PET/MRI (89.4 %) than [18F]FDG PET (86.4 %, p = 0.021) and MRI (82.9 %, p0.001 <) alone.

Conclusions: [18F]FDG PET/MRI detected 70.5 % of cases with macro-metastatic axillary lymph nodes in patients with clinically negative axilla, with greater accuracy than [18F]FDG PET or MRI alone. Advanced imaging might help refine the surgical strategy for axillary staging. Background: ClinicalTrials.Gov ID NCT04829643.