Abstract:         Background and purpose: The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z0011 trial has been described as practice-changing of sentinel lymph node (SLN) positive breast cancers. The goal of this study was to determine the exportability of the criteria defined by Z0011 trial for selecting patients who are eligible for avoiding axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) after a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) result in China. Methods: We collected 194 breast cancer patients with positive SLNs and classified them into two groups according to Z0011 criteria. One group was consisted of patients who were eligible for omitting ALND and with SLNB only. The other one was ALND group. Then the patients of SLNB group were com ared with cohort included in the Z0011 trial and the ALND group of this study separately. Results: Seventy-seven patients were potentially eligible for omitting ALND and 117 patients were still needed to have ALND. Compared with Z0011 cohort, the SLNB group in this research had significantly more T1 stage and ER positive tumors (P<0.05). More patients in SLNB group had positive LNs with the number less than 3 and negative NSLNs (P<0.05). The ALND group had more T2 and T3 stage tumors than the SLNB group but the difference was not significantly. The number of positive LNs in ALND group was higher than the SLNB group significantly (P<0.05). More patients in the ALND group had positive non-sentinel lymph node (NSLN) than the SLNB group and the difference was also significantly (P<0.05). Conclusion: Applied to the SLN positive patients in this study, Z0011 criteria could make patients with better prognosis and lower risk than Z0011 cohort be selected and let these patients avoiding ALND more safely.

Key words:  , Breast cancer, Sentinel lymph node, Axillary lymph node dissection