Leader

Axillary staging of breast cancer and the sentinel node

G Cserni¹

¹ Bács-Kiskun County Teaching Hospital, Department of Pathology, H-6000 Kecskemét, Nyíri út 38, Hungary

Correspondence to:
Dr Cserni cserni{at}freemail.c3.hu

Pathological aspects of axillary nodal staging of breast cancer and in particular sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy are reviewed. SLN biopsy seems an almost ideal staging procedure because it has both high accuracy and a low false negative rate. It may also allow a cost effective use of more sensitive methods of metastasis detection. However, the biological relevance of metastases detected only by modern tools remains to be elucidated. This review focuses on standard axillary staging and the histopathological investigation of SLNs, with emphasis on the intraoperative setting. Future trends including ancillary studies, quality control issues, prediction of non-SLN involvement, and suggestions concerning the minimum requirements for the histology of axillary SLNs are also discussed.

Key Words: axillary staging • breast cancer • sentinel lymph node

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Gobardhan, P. D., Elias, S. G., Madsen, E. V. E., Bongers, V., Ruitenberg, H. J. M., Perre, C. I., van Dalen, T. (2009). Prognostic value of micrometastases in sentinel lymph nodes of patients with breast carcinoma: a cohort study. Ann Oncol 20: 41-48 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Cserni, G, Amendoeira, I, Apostolikas, N, Bellocq, J P, Bianchi, S, Boecker, W, Borisch, B, Connolly, C E, Decker, T, Dervan, P, Drijkoningen, M, Ellis, I O, Elston, C W, Eusebi, V, Faverly, D, Heikkila, P, Holland, R, Kerner, H, Kulka, J, Jacquemier, J, Lacerda, M, Martinez-Penuela, J, De Miguel, C, Peterse, J L, Rank, F, Regitnig, P, Reiner, A, Sapino, A, Sigal-Zafrani, B, Tanous, A M, Thorstenson, S, Zozaya, E, Fejes, G, Wells, C A (2004). Discrepancies in current practice of pathological evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer. Results of a questionnaire based survey by the European Working Group for Breast Screening Pathology. J. Clin. Pathol. 57: 695-701 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Vinh-Hung, V., Verschraegen, C. (2004). Breast-Conserving Surgery With or Without Radiotherapy: Pooled-Analysis for Risks of Ipsilateral Breast Tumor Recurrence and Mortality. JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 96: 115-121 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Cserni, G (2003). Nodal staging of colorectal carcinomas and sentinel nodes. J. Clin. Pathol. 56: 327-335 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• van Diest, P J, Holzel, H, Reid, M, Crook, M, Spickett, G (2002). Electronic publishing and internet learning. J. Clin. Pathol. 55: 881-882 [Full Text]  
• Cserni, G (2002). Complete sectioning of axillary sentinel nodes in patients with breast cancer. Analysis of two different step sectioning and immunohistochemistry protocols in 246 patients. J. Clin. Pathol. 55: 926-931 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• den Bakker, M A, van Weeszenberg, A, de Kanter, A Y, Beverdam, F H, Pritchard, C, van der Kwast, T. H, Menke-Pluymers, M (2002). Non-sentinel lymph node involvement in patients with breast cancer and sentinel node micrometastasis; too early to abandon axillary clearance. J. Clin. Pathol. 55: 932-935 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Zehentner, B. K., Dillon, D. C., Jiang, Y., Xu, J., Bennington, A., Molesh, D. A., Zhang, X., Reed, S. G., Persing, D., Houghton, R. L. (2002). Application of a Multigene Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay for Detection of Mammaglobin and Complementary Transcribed Genes in Breast Cancer Lymph Nodes. Clin. Chem. 48: 1225-1231 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Leers, M P G, Schoffelen, R H M G, Hoop, J G M, Theunissen, P H M H, Oosterhuis, J W A, Bijl, H v., Rahmy, A, Tan, W, Nap, M (2002). Multiparameter flow cytometry as a tool for the detection of micrometastatic tumour cells in the sentinel lymph node procedure of patients with breast cancer. J. Clin. Pathol. 55: 359-366 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Anderson, T J (2002). Breast cancer prognostication in the 21st century and the Nottingham prognostic index. J. Clin. Pathol. 55: 86-87 [Full Text]