Abstract
Background Axillary lymph node (ALN) staging is the most effective method to evaluate the condition of patients with breast cancer, their choice of treatment options, and prognosis. The sentinel lymph node (SLN) status assessment is the key to sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with breast cancer. The choice of tracer and tracer injection sites affects SLNB. Objective This study mainly analyzes the best tracer for SLNB and the best choice of tracer injection site. Methods A total of 165 breast cancer patients who underwent SLNB were selected and injected with methylene blue or 99mTc-labeled sodium phytate or nanocarbon 20 min before biopsy. The number of SLNs detected by different tracers in different injection sites such as peritumoral tissue (PT) and subareolar area (SA) was counted, and the sensitivity, specificity, and positive/negative prediction rates were recorded and compared. Results The detection success rate, average detection number of SLNs, and detection accuracy of the nanocarbon tracer were higher than the other two. The detection sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative prediction rates of nanocarbon for SLNB were also higher than those of the other two tracers. When comparing the performance of tracers in different injection sites, it was found that the detection of three tracers injected in the SA was better than the injection in the PT. Conclusion For women with early-stage breast cancer, nanocarbon can be used as the preferred tracer for SLNB to determine the status of the patient's ALNs, and the areola area can be used as the best injection site.
Highlights
Breast cancer endangers the lives and health of more than 20% of women worldwide and has the highest morbidity and mortality among women over 35 years of age [1, 2]
Primary breast tumor treatment is based on radical mastectomy, whereas axillary treatment is based on axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) [5]
The average number of sentinel lymph node (SLN) detected by the different tracers was compared, and significant differences were found among the three tracers (P < 0:05)
Summary
Breast cancer endangers the lives and health of more than 20% of women worldwide and has the highest morbidity and mortality among women over 35 years of age [1, 2]. During ALND, axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) can be staged while removing potential metastatic lymph nodes, which is of great significance to improve the evaluation of the condition of patients, and better understand the treatment options and patient outcomes [6, 7]. Axillary lymph node (ALN) staging is the most effective method to evaluate the condition of patients with breast cancer, their choice of treatment options, and prognosis. The number of SLNs detected by different tracers in different injection sites such as peritumoral tissue (PT) and subareolar area (SA) was counted, and the sensitivity, specificity, and positive/negative prediction rates were recorded and compared. For women with early-stage breast cancer, nanocarbon can be used as the preferred tracer for SLNB to determine the status of the patient’s ALNs, and the areola area can be used as the best injection site
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