Clinical study of the axillary conservative surgery by sentinel lymph node biopsy using preoperative lymphoscintigraph technique with 99mTc-SC and methylene blue in breast cancer surgical therapy

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of the axillary conservative surgery by sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) using preoperative lymphoscintigraph technique with 99mTc-SC and methylene blue in early-stage breast cancer patients. Methods The sentinel lymph node (SLN) of 187 patients were located with preoperative lymphoscintigraph technique with 99mTc-SC and labeled with methylene blue during the operations. The metastasis of SLN was detected using frozen section technique. There were 51 patients whose SLN were positive having been carried with modified radical mastectomy of breast cancer and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), 136 patients' SLN were negative,58 patients of those were carried with mammectomy or partial mastcctomy and ALND (group A),while 78 patients were carried out with mammectomy or partial mastectomy only (group B). The sentinel lymph nodes were detected with HE stain after surgery. All the patients were treated with chemotherapy,and the patients with partial mastcctomy must be treated with radiotherapy. There were 2 patients with micrometastasis in group B being treated with mammectomy or partial mastcctomy only,and carried out with ALND again. Results The number of cases with upper limb numbness, edema, dysfunction in group A were 36,8 and 45 cases, in group B were 2,0,0 case respectively. Group A compared with group B was increased significantly (P 0.05). Conclusion It is simple and accurate to carry out SLNB using preoperative lymphoscintigraph technique with 99mTc-SC combined with methylene blue,and the effect is reliable. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Sentinel lymph node biopsy