Comparison of three tracers for detecting sentinel lymph nodes in patients with clinical N0 lung cancer.

The goal of this pilot study was to compare three tracers for the detection of sentinel nodes in patients with lung cancer. Forty-eight patients with clinical N0 non-small cell lung cancer were enrolled. Indocyanine green (n=16) or isosulfan blue (n=18) was injected around the tumor intraoperatively, or technetium tin colloid was injected preoperatively under CT guidance (n=14). Sentinel nodes were detected in 6.3% of patients injected with indocyanine green, 50.0% of patients injected with isosulfan blue, and 64.3% of patients injected with technetium tin colloid. The detection rate achieved with indocyanine green was significantly lower than with the other two tracers. A false-negative sentinel node was seen in 1 patient using isosulfan blue. Both isosulfan blue and technetium tin colloid seem to be suitable for intraoperative sentinel node mapping in patients with lung cancer.