Clinical breast cancer
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Clinical breast cancer · Jun 2013
A new technique that complements sentinel lymph node biopsy: lymph node dissection under the intercostobrachial nerves in early-stage breast cancer.
Arm lymphedema is a common complication after axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), and there is no effective treatment. The clinical significance of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is to avoid the risk of arm lymphedema caused by ALND in cases in which the nodes are negative for cancer cells. In developed countries, sentinel lymph node (SLN) localization methods by using combined dye and radioactive tracer techniques predict the lymph node status in early-stage breast cancer with comparable success rates, accuracy, and false-negative rates. In fact, most researchers agree that the combined technique has significantly higher accuracy than marking the sentinel nodes with dye alone. In China, the radioactive tracer technique is mostly used in research but not in clinical surgery, where it is not permitted. The necessity of intercostobrachial nerves (ICBN) preservation is now accepted by the surgeons and has become the standard procedure in such dissections, which reduces postoperative skin numbness and loss of feeling in the upper arm. ⋯ ALND under the ICBN could be considered a procedure complementary to SLNB in early-stage breast cancer in China, where the radioactive tracer technique is not widely applied.
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Clinical breast cancer · Jun 2013
Five-year outcomes and toxicities using 3-dimensional conformal external beam radiation therapy to deliver accelerated partial breast irradiation.
Limited 5-year data exist on clinical outcomes and toxicities for patients undergoing 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) APBI. ⋯ In the largest group of patients published to date using 3D-CRT to deliver APBI, no local recurrences were noted at 5 years. More than 80% of patients had excellent or good cosmesis.