Discussion

Dr.  Tina Yen (Milwaukee, WI): As summarized, this is a manuscript utilizing SEER-Medicare–linked database to examine surgeon variation in the number of sentinel nodes and oncologic yield for women with breast cancer. The authors report that the number of sentinel nodes removed increased with T stage , regardless of nodal status, and that there was a surgeon variation in both the number of sentinel nodes removed and oncologic yield. They conclude in their manuscript that improving standardization of sentinel node biopsy may optimize oncologic yield to ensure accurate nodal staging.
Source: Surgery - Category: Surgery Source Type: research