Annals of surgical oncology
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Comparative Study
Occult breast lesion localization plus sentinel node biopsy (SNOLL): experience with 959 patients at the European Institute of Oncology.
Non-palpable breast lesions are diagnosed frequently posing the problem of localization and removal. When such lesions are malignant, axillary node status must be determined. We report our experience using radio-guided occult lesion localization (ROLL) for locating and removing non-palpable breast lesions together with sentinel node biopsy (SNB) to assess axillary status. We call the technique SNOLL. ⋯ In SNOLL the injection procedures are performed separately, but both lesion and SNs are removed together; axillary dissection is performed if the SN is positive, thus definitive treatment of malignant non-palpable lesions occurs in a single surgical session.
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Negative surgical margins minimize the risk of local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery. Intraoperative frozen section analysis (FSA) is one method for margin evaluation. We retrospectively analyzed records of patients who received breast-conserving therapy with intraoperative FSA of the lumpectomy cavity to assess re-excision rates and local control. ⋯ Intraoperative FSA allows resection of suspicious or positive margins at the time of lumpectomy and results in low rates of local recurrence and re-excision. The low local recurrence rate reported here is comparable to those reported with other margin assessment techniques.
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Neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy has improved the local control rate and overall survival in locally advanced rectal cancers. The purpose of this retrospective study is to evaluate the correlation between the final pathologic stage and survival in these patients. ⋯ Posttreatment pathologic TNM stage is correlated to disease-free survival and tumor recurrence rate in locally advanced rectal cancer after preoperative chemoradiation. Also, pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant treatment has its oncologic benefit in both overall recurrence and disease-free survival.
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The optimal strategy for incorporating lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy into the management of breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy remains controversial. Previous studies of sentinel node biopsy performed following neoadjuvant chemotherapy have largely reported on patients whose prechemotherapy, pathologic axillary nodal status was unknown. We report findings using a novel comprehensive approach to axillary management of node-positive-patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. ⋯ Sentinel lymph node biopsy performed after the delivery of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with documented nodal disease at presentation accurately identified cases that may have been downstaged to node-negative status and can spare this subset of patients (32%) from experiencing the morbidity of an axillary dissection.