Abstract: Objective To investigate the significance of axillary lymph node dissection for breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node micrometastasis. Methods Clinical data about 118 cases of breast cancer with sentinel lymph node micrometastasis from Januany 2013 to December 2015 in the first medical center of Chinese PLA General Hospital were collected. According to the different surgical modes, patients were divided into axillary lymph node dissection group(57 cases) and non-axillary lymph node dissection group(61 cases). Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to analyze the overall survival and progression-free survival in two groups. Results There was no significant difference in general data between the two groups(P> 0.05). The 2-year overall survival rates were 98.18% in axillary lymph node dissection group and 98.25% in non-axillary lymph node dissection group, while the 2-year progression-free survival rates were 98.18% in axillary lymph node dissection group and 96.49% in non-axillary lymph node dissection group, without significant difference(P=0.970, P=0.605, respectively). Conclusion Axillary lymph node dissection may be omitted for the patients with isolated tumor cell metastasis and sentinel lymph node micrometastasis, but postoperative adjuvant therapy should be strengthened.