# Table 1. Characteristics of the 33 originally included systematic reviews and meta-analyses (2006-2026), with PICOS eligibility verdict

A strict PICOS eligibility triage (per Aromataris JBI 2015 framework, anchored on the PROSPERO protocol §10–13) was applied to the originally screened 33-SR corpus, splitting it into **13 ELIGIBLE** SRs (Table 1A — primary synthesis), **10 BORDERLINE** SRs (Table 1B — sensitivity analysis), and **10 EXCLUDED** SRs (Supplementary File S4 — with documented per-SR rationale). The combined table below preserves the chronological 33-SR view for readers who prefer single-table reading; refer to **Table 1A** and **Table 1B** for the disaggregated corpus and to `_amstar2_toolkit/eligibility_triage.json` for the per-SR justification.

Sorted by year of publication. Total participants are reported as captured from the abstract or, when available, from the full-text-equivalent sections in the project corpus; missing entries are flagged "see SR text" and will be completed during full-text re-extraction prior to journal submission. PMID and DOI permit one-click verification.

| # | Author, year | Journal | Design | k | N | Primary outcome reported | **Verdict** | PMID / DOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1  | Xing, 2006              | Br J Surg              | MA              | 21  | 1,273  | FNR of SLNB after NAC                                       | **BORDERLINE** | 16329089 / 10.1002/bjs.5209 |
| 2  | Kelly, 2009             | Acad Radiol            | SR/MA           | 24  | 1,799  | Diagnostic accuracy of SLN mapping post-NAT                  | **BORDERLINE** | 19345896 / 10.1016/j.acra.2009.01.026 |
| 3  | van Deurzen, 2009       | Eur J Cancer           | SR              | 27  | 2,148  | FNR of SLNB after NAC                                       | **BORDERLINE** | 19716287 / 10.1016/j.ejca.2009.08.001 |
| 4  | Tan, 2011               | J Surg Oncol           | MA              | NR  | NR     | FNR of SLNB after NAC (cN0-only)                            | **EXCLUDED**   | 21456092 / 10.1002/jso.21911 |
| 5  | Mamounas, 2012          | J Clin Oncol           | Pooled IPD      | 2 RCTs | 3,088 | Locoregional recurrence predictors (B-18, B-27)              | **EXCLUDED**   | 23032615 / 10.1200/JCO.2011.40.8369 |
| 6  | Moody, 2012             | Surgery                | MA              | 16  | 932    | SLNB in multifocal/multicentric BC                          | **EXCLUDED**   | 22938899 / 10.1016/j.surg.2012.06.017 |
| 7  | Nagaraja, 2014          | J Gastrointest Oncol   | MA              | 23  | NR     | SLN mapping in oesophageal cancer                           | **EXCLUDED**   | 24772341 / 10.3978/j.issn.2078-6891.2014.008 |
| 8  | Schipper, 2014          | Eur J Radiol           | SR              | 4   | 572    | Imaging restaging cN+ after NAC                              | **BORDERLINE** | 25458227 / 10.1016/j.ejrad.2014.09.020 |
| 9  | Mocellin, 2015          | Int J Cancer           | MA              | 72  | 7,451  | FNR of SLNB after NAC; predictors                            | **BORDERLINE** | 26084763 / 10.1002/ijc.29644 |
| 10 | van Nijnatten, 2015     | Eur J Surg Oncol       | SR/MA           | 8   | NR     | FNR of SLNB after NAST in pathologically confirmed cN+      | **ELIGIBLE**   | 26329781 / 10.1016/j.ejso.2015.07.020 |
| 11 | El Hage Chehade, 2016   | Am J Surg              | MA              | 19  | 3,398  | FNR of SLNB after NAC in biopsy-proven cN+                  | **ELIGIBLE**   | 27671032 / 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2016.07.018 |
| 12 | Geng, 2016              | PLoS One               | MA              | 16  | 1,456  | FNR of SLNB after NAC (cN0-only)                            | **EXCLUDED**   | 27606623 / 10.1371/journal.pone.0162605 |
| 13 | Krug, 2018              | Strahlenther Onkol     | SR              | 13  | NR     | PMRT and regional nodal RT after NAC                        | **BORDERLINE** | 29383405 / 10.1007/s00066-018-1270-x |
| 14 | Tee, 2018               | Br J Surg              | SR/MA           | 13  | 1,921  | FNR of SLNB after NAC in initial biopsy-proven cN+          | **ELIGIBLE**   | 30311642 / 10.1002/bjs.10986 |
| 15 | Simons, 2019            | Ann Surg               | SR/MA           | 20  | 2,217  | FNR/IR/NPV of SLNB, MARI, combination vs ALND in cN+         | **ELIGIBLE**   | 30312200 / 10.1097/SLA.0000000000003075 |
| 16 | Cao, 2021               | Breast                 | MA              | 27  | 3,578  | FNR of SLNB after NACT in cN+ at initial diagnosis           | **ELIGIBLE**   | 34325383 / 10.1016/j.breast.2021.07.015 |
| 17 | Samiei, 2021            | JAMA Surg              | Pooled MA       | 33  | 57,531 | Axillary pCR by molecular subtype in initial cN+            | **ELIGIBLE**   | 33881478 / 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.0891 |
| 18 | Swarnkar, 2021          | Cancers                | Pooled MA       | 9 / 13 | 366 / 521 | Pooled FNR of MLNB and TAD in cN+ after NACT              | **ELIGIBLE**   | 33810544 / 10.3390/cancers13071539 |
| 19 | Gnant, 2022             | Curr Opin Oncol        | Narrative       | NR  | NR     | Surgical de-escalation after NAT (opinion)                  | **EXCLUDED**   | 36083127 / 10.1097/CCO.0000000000000906 |
| 20 | Lin, 2022               | Ann Surg Oncol         | SR/MA           | 79  | 10,680 | FNR of SLNB after NAT (cN± pooled)                          | **BORDERLINE** | 35018590 / 10.1245/s10434-021-11297-z |
| 21 | Song, 2022              | Cancer Med             | SR/MA           | NR  | 1,920  | TLNB in initial cN+ treated with NST                        | **ELIGIBLE**   | 35502768 / 10.1002/cam4.4769 |
| 22 | Vázquez, 2022           | Clin Transl Oncol      | SR/MA           | 20  | NR     | SLNB in cN+ → ycN0 trajectory                                | **ELIGIBLE**   | 36153763 / 10.1007/s12094-022-02953-1 |
| 23 | Banys-Paluchowski, 2023 | Scand J Surg           | Narrative       | NR  | NR     | Axillary staging cN+ to ycN0 (narrative)                    | **EXCLUDED**   | 36642957 / 10.1177/14574969221145892 |
| 24 | Ma, 2023                | Front Oncol            | Pooled MA       | NR  | 9,609  | SLNB in cN0 with breast pCR (cN0-only)                      | **EXCLUDED**   | 37064127 / 10.3389/fonc.2023.1167912 |
| 25 | Pantiora, 2023          | Br J Surg              | MA              | 20  | NR     | SPIO vs RI/BD as SLN tracer (mostly upfront cN0)            | **EXCLUDED**   | 36560842 / 10.1093/bjs/znac426 |
| 26 | de Wild, 2024           | Br J Surg              | SR (with MA)    | 51  | 4,512  | TAD in cN+ post-NAST; excludes cN0                           | **ELIGIBLE**   | 38531689 / 10.1093/bjs/znae071 |
| 27 | Vasigh, 2024            | Breast J               | MA              | 11  | 18,037 | NAC vs NET in HR+/HER2- cN+; nodal pCR                       | **BORDERLINE** | 39742366 / 10.1155/2024/8866756 |
| 28 | Yu, 2024                | Breast Cancer (Auckl)  | MA              | 21  | 1,716  | TAD vs SLNB after NAC (cN0-only)                            | **EXCLUDED**   | 38826850 / 10.1177/11782234241255856 |
| 29 | Boland, 2025            | Eur J Surg Oncol       | SR/MA           | 5   | 374    | SPIO vs RI SLN detection (cN0+cN+ pooled)                    | **BORDERLINE** | 40009931 / 10.1016/j.ejso.2025.109684 |
| 30 | Ding, 2025              | J Cancer Res Ther      | SR/MA           | 16  | NR     | PMRT in ypN0 after NAC; LRR and survival                     | **BORDERLINE** | 40317154 / 10.4103/jcrt.jcrt_1279_24 |
| 31 | Man, 2025               | Breast Cancer          | Pooled MA       | 14  | 4,268  | SLNB vs MARI/TAD; axillary recurrence and DFS/OS             | **ELIGIBLE**   | 40186790 / 10.1007/s12282-025-01692-9 |
| 32 | Wang, 2025              | Oncology               | SR/MA           | 16  | 5,249  | SLNB alone in cN+ with nodal pCR; OS/DFS                     | **ELIGIBLE**   | 39899993 / 10.1159/000543662 |
| 33 | Abdulla, 2026           | Ann Surg Oncol         | SR/MA           | 5   | 2,849  | SLNB vs TAD in cN+ → ycN0; recurrence and DFS/OS             | **ELIGIBLE**   | 41545613 / 10.1245/s10434-025-19070-2 |

**Verdict summary.** ELIGIBLE n = 13 (39%) — see Table 1A; BORDERLINE n = 10 (30%) — see Table 1B; EXCLUDED n = 10 (30%) — see Supplementary File S4. The triage refined the originally included 33-SR corpus to a methodologically purer 23-SR working set (13 primary + 10 sensitivity).

**Footer.** Designs: SR = systematic review; MA = meta-analysis; Pooled MA = pooled analysis with explicit search and meta-analytic estimation. Across the originally included 33 reviews, twenty-five (76%) included a meta-analytic synthesis; eight (24%) were narrative SRs. Approximate cumulative N across reviews with reported denominators: ~120,000 patients (range per review 374–57,531). Because 24/33 reviews share at least one primary study, this cumulative count overestimates unique participants; the corrected covered area (CCA) is reported in Section 3.3 of the manuscript. Twenty reviews (61%) reported explicit AMSTAR-2-compatible search strings; 13 (39%) described the search only narratively (Item 4 deficient). PMIDs and DOIs are linked in `references.md` (Vancouver-numbered).
