Prognostic Study of Sentinel Lymph Node and Bone Marrow Metastases in Women With Stage I or Stage IIA Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: * Estimate the prevalence and evaluate the prognostic significance of sentinel lymph node micrometastases detected by immunohistochemistry in women with stage I or IIA breast cancer. * Estimate the prevalence and evaluate the prognostic significance of bone marrow micrometastases detected by immunocytochemistry in these patients. * Evaluate the hazard rate for regional recurrence in women whose sentinel nodes are negative by hematoxylin and eosin (H\&E) staining. * Provide a mechanism for identifying women whose sentinel nodes contain metastases detected by H\&E so that these women can be considered as candidates for ACOSOG-Z0011.