A Randomized clinical trial on sentinel lymph node biopsy versus axillary lymph node dissection in breast cancer: results of the Sentinella/GIVOM trial.

Objective: The aim of this multicenter randomized trial was to assess the efficacy and safety of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy compared with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

Background: All studies on SLN biopsy in breast cancer report a variable false negative rate, whose prognostic consequences are still unclear.

Methods: From May 1999 to December 2004, patients with breast cancer < or =3 cm were randomly assigned to receive SLN biopsy associated with ALND (ALND arm) or SLN biopsy followed by ALND only if the SLN was metastatic (SLN arm).

Sentinel lymph node metastasis from mammary ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion.

Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion (DCISM) of the breast was controversial, because of the relevant morbidity incurred by the procedure and the low incidence of axillary involvement. The introduction of the sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy as a minimally invasive procedure for axillary staging has prompted new interest in this issue. However, as DCISM is a rare type of cancer, data on the incidence of SLN metastasis are scarce.

Role of axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with pure ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.

Background: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is an effective tool for axillary staging in patients with invasive breast cancer. This procedure has been recently proposed as part of the treatment for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), because cases of undetected invasive foci and nodal metastases occasionally occur. However, the indications for SLN biopsy in DCIS patients are controversial.

Number of metastatic sentinel nodes as predictor of axillary involvement in patients with breast cancer.

Background And Objectives: More than half of patients with positive sentinel node (SN) have no metastases in non-sentinel nodes (NSNs) on axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). The aim of this study was to investigate factors predictive of NSNs involvement, in order to identify patients with metastatic disease confined to the SN which might avoid ALND.

Methods: ALND was performed in 167 patients with metastatic SN.