The role of sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer

Abstract

The problem of improving early diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer remains one of the most actual for current oncological practice. Taking into account a close correlation between the general prevalence of breast neoplasms and mortality from breast cancer, this problem is not only of professional interest, but also has medical-social and socio-economic significance. The purpose of the study is to improve the quality of the sentinel lymph node detection in patients with breast cancer using ICG. Material and methods. At the period 2009–2016, 400 patients with T1-T3N0M0 breast cancer were operated on. All the patients were divided into two groups using two dyes – Patent Blue and ICG. The patients after mastectomy with a sentinel lymph node biopsy had a clinical diagnosis of T2-T3N0M0 breast cancer more often. In group I, 100 patients had the sentinel lymph node biopsy. Lymph node staining was performed using Patent Blue dye. In group II, sentinel lymph nodes biopsy was conducted with the Patent Blue dye and another fluorescent dye – ICG, which was also injected on the affected side of the breast. After ICG dye introduction, in 15 minutes the stained green lymph nodes were detected using special equipment.