Sentinel-lymph-node biopsy in breast cancer

Abstract

Sentinel-lymph-node (SLN) resection in operable breast cancer is a widely adopted and reliable staging instrument for lymphatic involvement. When undertaken by an experienced medical team (including a surgeon, nuclear physician, and pathologist (and when combined tracing techniques are used) ie, radioisotopes with blue-dye tracers) identification rate of SLNs has been shown to be over 95% with false-negative rates between 5% and 10% after subsequent axillary-lymph-node dissection (ALND).1 Clinical false-negative rates—ie, identification of positive lymph nodes during follow-up after a negative SLN procedure—have been reported as less then 1% after a mean follow-up of almost 4 years.