Surgery

Sentinel Node Breast Biopsy

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Sentinel Node Breast Biopsy

  • Indications
  1. Breast Cancer Staging
  • Advantages
  1. Much less invasive than axillary node dissection
  • Technique
  1. Albumin labeled with technetium-99m injected
  2. Scanning times
    1. Fifteen minutes
    2. Thirty minutes
    3. Three hours
  3. Sentinel Node appears first or most radioactive
  1. Studied 160 Italian women ages 25-77 years
  2. Focal tumors 5-6 cm in diameter
    1. Sensitivity: 95%
    2. Positive Predictive Value: 97%
    3. Missed 5 cases
      1. Micrometastases
      2. Multifocal tumors
  3. Choose appropriate patients for this technique
  4. Reference
    1. Veronesi (1997) Lancet 349:1864-7 [PubMed]