Table 1

Topics of randomized controlled trials in breast cancer surgery and the number of related nonrandomized studies

Outcome comparison, topic	RCT study	No. patients in RCT	No. related article abstracts	No. full text nRCTs screened	No. nRCTs (patients)
ICB nerve dissection v. preservation

1. Sensory deficit11,12	Freeman et al.11	158	173	7	4 (410)13–16
	Torresan et al.12

ALND v. SLNB

2. Death17–19	Mansel et al.17	2 167	4 351	18	1 (298)30
3. Local recurrence17–19	Veronesi et al.18				4 (4 481)20–23
	Zavagno et al.19

4. Numbness24,25	Fleissig et al.24	1 127	391	44	1 (370)26
5. Swelling24,25	Purushotham et al.25				1 (370)26
6. Reduced arm mobility24,25					1 (370)26

Mastectomy v. breast-conserving therapy

7. Death27–30	Veronesi et al.27	2 561	3 047	43	10 (7 544)31–38,47,48
8. Local recurrence27–30	Arriagada et al.28				12 (12 537)31–42
	Poggi et al.29
	Fisher et al.30

Pectoral minor dissection v. preservation

9. No. lymph nodes removed43	Freitas-Júnior et al.43	426	343	24	2 (789)44,45
10. Complications43					1 (101)46

ALND = axillary lymph node dissection; ICB = intercostobrachial; nRCT = nonrandomized study; RCT = randomized controlled trial; SLNB = sentinel lymph node biopsy.