Extensive nodal disease may impair axillary reverse mapping in patients with breast cancer.

Purpose: The aim of axillary reverse mapping (ARM) is to preserve arm lymphatics in patients with breast cancer who underwent surgical axillary staging.

Patients And Methods: From June 2007 to December 2008, 49 patients who required axillary dissection (AD) underwent ARM. One milliliter of patent blue dye was injected in the ipsilateral arm, and all blue nodes identified during AD were sent separately for pathologic examination.

Aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer: different structures, same effects?

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) have become the first-choice endocrine drugs for postmenopausal breast cancer patients since they are associated with superior activity and better general tolerability when compared with tamoxifen both in the adjuvant and metastatic settings. As a consequence, the question is no more if a postmenopausal patient should have AIs as part of her adjuvant treatment, but when should it be started or which one should be preferentially used. Newer compounds, generally defined as third-generation AIs, are biochemically more selective and potent when compared with older ones, and they also show superior clinical activity.