Sentinel node in breast cancer - a Swedish pilot study of 75 patients

Objective: To find out if the sentinel node can be detected in sufficient n umbers of women with breast cancer to be useful as a prognostic sign, wheth er it reflects that state of the entire axilla, and whether it detects micr ometastases that would otherwise be missed. Design: Prospective study. Setting: 3 teaching hospitals, Sweden. Subjects: 75 patients with breast cancer who were Listed to have axillary d issection as well as resection of their tumour. Interventions: Injection of Tc-99 nanocolloid 0.4 mi and patent blue dye 1 mi around the tumour or under the skin above the tumour, followed by preope rative lymphoscintigraphy and then identification of the sentinel node duri ng operation either because it had turned blue or with a gamma probe. Remov al of the sentinel node and complete axillary dissection. Main outcome measures: Identification of the sentinel node and presence of metastatic nodes in the axilla. Results: The sentinel node was identified in 69/75 (92%). It correctly pred icted the state of the axilla in 66/69 (96%), and detected metastases in 24 of the 27 with invaded nodes in the axilla (89%). The false negative rate was 11%. In 14/27 with axillary metastases (52%) the sentinel node was the only involved node. In 3/24, metastases were detected by immunohistochemist ry alone. Conclusion: Biopsy of the sentinel node predicted the presence or absence o f axillary metastases with acceptable accuracy. However, before axillary no de dissection is rejected in favour of sentinel node biopsy alone, large mu lticentre studies are needed to establish the true false negative rate.