Tumor draining sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) are
the sites of selective changes as compared to non-SLNs. They
show features of tumor-reactive lymphadenopathy, including
increased total number of functional blood vessels, but a rel-
ative immunosuppressed status has also been described in
them. We explored the hypothesis of a selective regression
or non-regression in SLNs versus non-SLNs in 142 patients
with 110 estrogen receptor-positive and 32 estrogen receptor-
negative tumors undergoing both SLN biopsy and axillary
lymph node dissection after neoadjuvant therapy by assessing
the tumoral (metastatic) and regression statuses of SLNs and
non-SLNs separately. Of the 89 cases with signs of nodal
regression, 22 cases (25%) were in favor of a selective non-
regression in SLNs, 18 cases (20%) were supportive of a se-
lective and more pronounced regression in the SLNs and the
remaining showed equal degrees of regression or non-

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