Feasibility study of the axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy of breast cancer under endoscopy

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical feasibility of the axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy under endos-copy for breast cancer. Methods From January 2010 to October 2012,45 patients with early breast cancer in people’s hospital of Rizhao were chose. The patients were performed with ESLNB at first,and the obtained sentinel lymph nodes were sended for intraoperative rapid pathologic and postoperative pathologic examination,and then the axillary lymph nodes were obtained by axillary lymph node dissection（ALND）,the obtained axillary lymph nodes were sended for postoperative pathologic examination. The sensitivity,accuracy,false negative rate and false positive rate of ESLNB was evaluated. The assessment results of axillary lymph node metastasis situation by ESLNB and ALND were compared. Results Forty-three sentinel lymph nodes were successfully detected,the success rate was 95. 6% . The sensitivity of ESLNB intraoperative fast pathologic examination was 90. 1% ,and the accuracy rate was 88. 4% ;the false negative rate was 9. 1% ,and false posi-tive rate was 6. 06% ;The sensitivity of ESLNB postoperative pathologic examination was 93. 9% ,and the accuracy rate was 90. 1% ;the false negative rate was 6. 06% ,and the false positive rate was 6. 06% . There was no significant differ-ence in the evaluation results of axillary lymph node metastasis status between ESLNB intraoperative rapid / postoperative pathologic examination and ALND postoperative pathologic examination（P ﹥ 0. 05）. Conclusions The axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy of breast cancer by endoscopic surgery through methylene blue staining is feasible and safe. It opens a new route for narrowing the operation scope of breast cancer. Key words: Breast cancer; Sentinel lymph node; Endoscope surgery