The identification of "sentinel" node in early breast cancer - A case study

From January 2000 to February 2001 a feasibility study of sentinel node biopsy was undertaken in our surgical unit. 23 breast cancer patients were submitted to sentinel node biopsy followed by three level axillary lymphanedectomy in 21 cases. In eight patients metastases were present in axillary lymph nodes: among these, seven had metastatic sentinel node (false negative I out of 21 = 4.76%). In 3 out of 7 N+ cases sentinel node was the only metastatic node (42.85%). Although the sample is relatively small our results confirm that sentinel node biopsy has a good predictive value in the axillary staging of breast cancer, but it needs to be validated by more multicenter trials.