European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
-
Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging · Aug 2005
Impact of axillary nodal metastases on lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node identification rate in patients with early stage breast cancer.
The aim of this study was to define the impact of the presence of axillary nodal metastases on lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node (SLN) identification rate in patients with early breast cancer. ⋯ The accuracy of lymphatic mapping with labelled nanocolloid is limited by the presence of axillary nodal metastases, and particularly by the degree of SLN tumoural invasion and the presence and number of other axillary nodal metastases. Neither of these elements seems to interfere with the blue dye identification rate. The combination of the two tracers maximises the SLN identification rate.