Two decades of experience with Sentinel node staging of axilla – is false negative no longer a worry?

Abstract

Background: Axillary conservation is the way forward after game changing trials like ACOSOG Z0011, surrogate trials like IBCSG,AMAROS, ALMANAC, on-going POSNOC, and newbie ATNEC have decreased the need to fiddle with the axilla. Current standard is the utilisation of double technique with radioisotope and blue dye to decrease false negative rates for true sentinel node retrieval.