Establishment and Verification of a Bagged-Trees-Based Model for Prediction of Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis for Early Breast Cancer Patients

Conclusions: Our model is more reliable and stable to assist doctors predict the SLN metastasis in breast cancer patients before operation. Introduction The incidence of breast cancer is the first in female malignant tumors, in which the highest incidence of breast cancer has been reported in Europe and the United States, however, in recent years, the incidence of breast cancer in China has annually increased (1, 2). Based on surgery as an important step in the treatment of breast cancer, in recent years, different individuals have never stopped exploration of a novel and optimum approach. Besides, NSABP-04, ASCOG-Z0011, and other tests have shown that for breast cancer patients with T1-T2 stage and clinical negative lymph node (cN0) during breast preservation surgery and total breast radiotherapy, axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) does not contain great benefits to the long-term survival of patients. As a result, sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has been gradually replaced with conventional ALND as a routine surgical method for early breast cancer patients (3–7). However, SLNB, as an invasive operation, leads to some postoperative complications. Although the corresponding incidence rate is lower than ALND, however, those complications should not be ignored. Moreover, SLNB has a high degree of professional requirement for physicians, and the richness of physician's experience directly affects the evaluation of the pathological status of sentinel l...
Source: Frontiers in Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research