PMID: 8984369Nov 9, 1996Paper

Identification of the sentinel node in patients with breast carcinoma

Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde
O E NiewegB B Kroon

Abstract

To investigate the hypothesis that lymphatic metastasis of breast cancer progresses in a sequential fashion, and whether the first lymph node on a direct drainage pathway (first-echelon node, sentinel node) can be identified in a mastectomy specimen. Descriptive analysis. The Netherlands Cancer Institute (Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital), Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 22 patients with clinically localized breast cancer and five with breast cancer and axillary lymphadenopathy, patent blue dye was administered preoperatively into the primary tumor. After mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection, blue stained lymphatic channels were dissected down to the first draining lymph nodes. These sentinel nodes were removed from the specimen and examined separately for presence of metastatic disease. In 2/5 patients with palpable axillary metastases and in one patient with a tumour in the medial upper quadrant, no sentinel node was found. A total of 35 first-echelon nodes was identified in the 22 patients without palpable lymphadenopathy, on average 1.6 nodes per patient (range: 1-4). In 10 of these patients, metastatic tumour was found in the sentinel nodes. In 6 of these 10 patients, no metastatic disease was detected in the remain...Continue Reading

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