A 12-question electronic survey was distributed to members of 3 Pacific Northwest surgical societies. Surgeons were queried regarding the impact of the trial results on their surgical management of breast cancer.
The 181 respondents reported performing fewer CALNDs (63%), fewer intraoperative frozen sections (21%), and no immunohistochemistry (12%) because of trial data. However, 28%of surgeons continued to perform CALND in patients with 1 to 2 positive sentinel lymph nodes undergoing lumpectomy and postoperative radiation.
Recent trial data have impacted the performance of CALNDs and the pathological evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes among Pacific Northwest surgeons. Our results suggest a need for regional surgical societies to disseminate practice-changing trial data to members.