The evolution of the sentinel node procedure in the treatment of breast cancer.

The evolution of the sentinel node procedure in the treatment of breast cancer. Dan Med J. 2017 Oct;64(10): Authors: Tvedskov TF Abstract This thesis is based on 10 original articles, of which 3 were previously included in the PhD thesis "Staging of women with breast cancer after introduction of sentinel node guided axillary dissection". In the PhD thesis is was shown that the introduction of sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND) in the treatment of breast cancer in Denmark has resulted in an increased identification of patients with micrometastases or isolated tumor cells (ITC) in the lymph nodes. Not all these small metastases are likely to disseminate to non-sentinel nodes. This thesis provides evidence that a previous surgical excision of a breast tumor is likely to lead to iatrogenic displacement of tumor cells resulting in a nearly four-fold increased risk of ITC in the sentinel node. These tumor cells are not associated with non-sentinel node metastases. Especially ITC, but also micrometastases and some macrometastases, are not identified on perioperative frozen sections, but found postoperatively at the conventional histopathological examination. These patients are offered an axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) as a second procedure. It has been suggested that this two-stage procedure reduces the number of lymph nodes removed, because of fibroses from previous surgery. In this thesis it was shown that a two-stage procedure ...
Source: Danish Medical Journal - Category: General Medicine Tags: Dan Med J Source Type: research