NILS-studien (Non-Invasiv diagnostik av Lymfkörtel Stadium)

Breast cancer is today diagnosed at an early stage and less than 30% of the patients are currently presenting with nodal metastasis. Sentinel node biopsy technique is the standard staging procedure, but internationally the necessity of surgical nodal staging is questioned for selected patients as even this minor surgical procedure has documented side effects.
As no imaging technique has sufficient accuracy for prediction of nodal metastasis, this multidisciplinary project aim to develop ANN based classifiers for prediction of nodal metastasis based on routinely available data. The vision is to develop a web based tool which can be used by the treating physician for calculation of the risk of nodal metastasis. If successful, this tool can form the basis for future handling of the axilla after careful evaluation in a prospective study.
Ultimately patients with a normal ultrasound and clinically node negative disease can be spared a surgical staging procedure with associated side effects. In parallel, we are working in interdisciplinary collaborative groups to gain further insight into the mechanisms of lymphatic spread which can in the future provide insight into biological factors predicting nodal metastasis.