Effect of adding indocyanine green to identifying sentinel lymph node in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of adding indocyanine green fluorescence to the dual method, (Radioisotope+Isosulfanblue) for sentinel lymph node biopsy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (on sentinel lymph nodes identification).

METHODS

The 101 patients included in the study were randomized equally into each group. Dual method containing indocyanine green (group 1) or dual method alone (group 2) was used for sentinel lymph node mapping.

RESULTS

The sentinel lymph node identification rate was 86.9% in the dual method group and 94.6% in the triple method group. The detection rates of two or more sentinel lymph nodes were 82.6% in the dual group and 89.2% in the triple group. There was no statistically significant difference between both the groups (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION

Indocyanine green-based sentinel lymph node biopsy detection will bring a significant change in the management of patients in centers where there is no access to a nuclear medicine department. Nevertheless, multicenter studies with larger patient samples are needed to confirm our results.