Abstract
Purpose: The study of the sentinel lymph node is the best technique to stage, have a prognosis and decide the adequate treatment in breast cancer. The usual technique implies studding the axillary lymph node. Our work tries to identify affected nodes in other regions apart from the axilla and its possible impact in staging and treatment. Methods: The sentinel lymph node technique was performed on 1660 patients included in an observational and multicentric study designed to observe the presence of metastatic cells in axillary and non-axillary lymph nodes. Results: In 19% of the patients the sentinel lymph node was detected in non-axillary regions. In these cases metastatic cells were more frequent which could suppose a change in the stage and/or treatment. As protective factor against non-axillary nodes involvement we found the localization of the cancer in external quadrants while youth and injecting the tracer inside the tumor were found to be risk factors. Conclusions: Detecting and studding non-axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer leads to a more precise staging of the disease which could imply a change in the optimal treatment.
Highlights
Sentinel lymph node (SLN) assessment is the gold standard method to achieve a correct breast cancer staging [1]How to cite this paper: Méndez, J.E., Ibáñez, J.F.J., Pérez, M.C., Navinés, J., Schulte-Eversum, J.V., López-Amor, M.F. and Carrasco, M.A. (2014) Non-Axillary Sentinel Node in Breast Cancer
Related to the SLN biopsy we studied the injection method, the number of nodes identified in the lymphoscintigraphy, the number of nodes identified in the dissection and the number of nodal metastasis
Lymph node metastasis varied depending on its location
Summary
Sentinel lymph node (SLN) assessment is the gold standard method to achieve a correct breast cancer staging [1]How to cite this paper: Méndez, J.E., Ibáñez, J.F.J., Pérez, M.C., Navinés, J., Schulte-Eversum, J.V., López-Amor, M.F. and Carrasco, M.A. (2014) Non-Axillary Sentinel Node in Breast Cancer. Sentinel lymph node (SLN) assessment is the gold standard method to achieve a correct breast cancer staging [1]. (2014) Non-Axillary Sentinel Node in Breast Cancer. Advances in Breast Cancer Research, 3, 124-130. It is remarkable that its use has usually been focused on the axillary lymph nodes, undervaluing hypothetic positive nodes in other areas and its possible consequences [3]. As almost 70% of positive axillary SLN patients do not have metastasis performing an axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) seems to be overtreatment [4]. Selected patients with specific tumor characteristic, even with a positive axillary SLN, may benefit from a conservative attitude, eliminating complications of axillary surgery with no adverse effect on survival [5] [6]
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