[lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in patients with Breast Cancer ].

UNLABELLED: Axillary lymphadenectomy is the standard of care in breast cancer patients. Lymphatic mapping has arisen as an alternative offering less morbidity.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the success rate of subareolar blue dye injection (SM) in sentinel node (SN) biopsy and its value in axillary staging.

METHODS

62 stages I and II breast cancer patients without palpable axillary nodes received subareolar injection of blue dye; an intraoperative study of the SN was carried out. Axillary lymphadenectomy was carried out in all patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were measured.

RESULTS

In 58/62 patients (93.5%), SN was identified; 19/58(32%) patients had nodal metastases, 18 were identified in intraoperative study, and only one false negative; 12/18 patients showed metastasis in other axillary nodes (66%), in 6 (27%) the only metastasis site was SN. Sensitivity/specificity of the SN was 92.8 and 88.6%, respectively. Positive predictive value is 72.2% and negative predictive value is 97.5%

CONCLUSION

SAI of blue dye allows identification of SN in 93.5%; with high sensitivity. SN negative predictive value is 97.5% in this study.