In the instance of the original poster, yes they do have a choice to make and removal of a couple of lymph nodes is perhaps a good option to consider.  If it were me, I would seriously consider that option - but not consider removal of any other lymph nodes and perhaps ultimately not remove any at all. 

Assuming that the lymph nodes are cancerous does  not mean that they absolutely are cancerous. It is also possible to cure canceroous lymph nodes.  If the lymph nodes are cancerous, then that almost certainly means the cancer was not eliminated to begin with, which is what we should be focusing on here.

Odds are that tumor removal/mastectomy instead of the alternatives she chose might have made your neice a five year survivor, but I do not see how you can say that it absolutely would have since the five year survival rate is not 100%.  The five year survival rates for breast cancer diagnosed in early stages is pretty high these days - though in great part that is due to DCIS now being included in the statistics when it was previously not considered to be only a possible pre-cancerous condition.

Personally, I don't consider survival for 5 years to be complete success anyway.  I consider complete success and actually saving someone to be elimination of the cancer and then having a person go on to live a more or less normal lifespan cancer-free.

How can you make a statement that I fail to recognize that "many" is not all?  Isn't that rather rediculous since my decision to put the word "many" in the title of the article would by definition rule out "all"?

You are right in indicating that my opinions are rather one-sided when it comes to mainstream chemo, radiation and surgery - but I will point out, once again, that this is the Cancer ALTERNATIVES support forum whose purpose is to offer alternatives to mainstream treatments.  The original poster was looking for advice about chemo (regardless of the status of the lymph nodes) and how they might also address the lymph nodes without surgery and that is what I gave.

Insofar as the RN who claims that all 15 people she knows who used alternatives were dead, that may well be.  Then again,  the head of oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering (may he rot in Hell!) once stated that no one had ever been cured of cancer by alternatives - a blatant and boldfaced lie which has likely led untold numbers of people to reject alternative treatments which might have saved them.

Lumping all people who tried alternatives into one category is kind of like the studies which lump all meat eaters into one group - including those who eat feedlot type meat and processed meat as well as those who eat healthy grass fed organic meat.  People who reject mainstream and more or less casually try some alternatives that they heard about - such as laetrile, which I do not consider an effective standalone treatment at all - are quite different from those who diligently do research to find the best alternatives and adopt a complete anticancer protocol and lifestyle.  In many instances those in the first group will not have that great of success whereas those in the latter group might have very good success.  It is the comprehensive approach which I recommend and in my experience it has been highly, highly successful.

Dr. Hulda Clark died of spinal cord injury complications and no biopsy was ever performed, though it is certainly popular for mainstream supporters and apologists to use her death to condemn alternative cancer therapy entirely.  Should we take all the oncologists and oncology RN's who die of cancer as condemnations of mainstream cancer treatment? Personally, I have never been a fan of Dr. Clark and think that some of her ideas about cancer, such as her mysterious flukes, were batty - though she has some very good cleanses and other good information.

I congratulate you on your success thus far, btw, and it is my hope that you have continued success and good health for not just a few more years but many, many years.  I also applaud you doing plenty of research on your options - something that far too people who opt for either alternative or mainstream treatment do.