Value of doppler ultrasound hook-wire-guided suspicious node biopsy in early breast cancer

Abstract

Objective To explore ideal surgical axillary management of early breast cancer,and to determine the feasibility of reducing false negative rate of sentinel lymph node biopsy(SLNB)by combination of axillary suspicious lymph node biopsy and SLNB.Methods From Jan.2008 to Oct.2009,42 consecutive cases with early breast cancer were enrolled.All patients underwent suspicious node hook-wire location by doppler ultrasonography before operation.SLNB and suspicious lymph node biopsy were performed during operation.Complete axillary nodes dissection(ALND)or level II dissection would be conducted according to the biopsy result.The difference of node status prediction between SLNB and SLNB with axillary suspicious lymph node biopsy and was compared.Results All the 42 cases successfully underwent SLNB (100%).There were 2 false negatives occurred in SLNB,resulting in false negative rate of 11%,sensitivity of 88.9%and accuracy of 95.2%in predicting axillary nodes status.By contrast,SLNB with axillary suspicious node biopsy showed a false-negative rate of 0%,sensitivity of 100%,and accuracy of 100%.Conclusions Compared to SLNB in early breast cancer,combination of suspicious node biopsy and SLAB has a tendency of reducing false negative rate.However,Because of the limited samples,the difference has no statistical significance(P=0.2500). Key words: Breast neoplasms; Suspicious lymph node biopsy; Sentinel lymph node biopsy; False negative rate; axillary lymph nodes dissection