Detection of occult sentinel lymph node micrometastases by immunohistochemistry in breast cancer. An NSABP protocol B-32 quality assurance study.

Background: Occult metastases, by definition, are not detected on initial examination. They may be present on slides but missed during screening or may be present in paraffin embedded tissue blocks and undetected without additional levels. Anticytokeratin immunohistochemistry (CK IHC) enhances detection of occult metastases, particularly micrometastases (> 0.

Comparison of pathologist-detected and automated computer-assisted image analysis detected sentinel lymph node micrometastases in breast cancer.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy has stimulated interest in identification of micrometastatic disease in lymph nodes, but identifying small clusters of tumor cells or single tumor cells in lymph nodes can be tedious and inaccurate. The optimal method of detecting micrometastases in sentinel nodes has not been established. Detection is dependent on node sectioning strategy and the ability to locate and confirm tumor cells on histologic sections.