Journal
ANNALS OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY
Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages 525-530Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1245/ASO.2003.10.003
Keywords
sentinel lymph node biopsy; breast carcinoma; axillary dissection; pathologic color quality assessment
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: One of the problems of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is the risk of false negatives. At the Institut Curie, to reduce the false-negative rate, we have developed a histological quality control of the SLN performed by blue dye alone, which consists of verification of the SLN blue stain by the pathologist. Methods: A total of 324 patients underwent an SLN biopsy procedure with patent blue dye only followed by an immediate axillary dissection. Initially, SLNs were checked to ensure that they were blue by macroscopic examination. Finally, a search for immunohistochemistry micrometastasis was performed. Results: In 277 (85.5%) of 324 patients, an SLN was identified by the surgeon. After standard examination, the false-negative rate was 11.1% (10 of 90). After macroscopic checking of the 197 negative SLNs, 167 of the 197 were confirmed blue, and there were 5 false negatives, which brought the false-negative rate down to 5.6% (5 of 90). Sixty SLNs out of the 167 confirmed blue SLNs were then proved to be immunohistochemically micrometastatic, and there were 3 false negatives, giving a final false-negative rate of 2.2% (2 of 90; P = .002). Conclusions: In this series, the procedure of pathologic analysis of the SLN has resulted in a significant reduction of the false-negative rate.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available