Impact of delayed lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel lymphnode biopsy for breast cancer.

Background: Despite universal adoption of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for breast cancer, there remains no standardized protocol for preoperative lymphoscintographic assessment of sentinel nodes. Both immediate and delayed lymphoscintigraphy are currently utilized, although it is unclear how delayed imaging impacts SLN identification.

Methods: Among patients diagnosed with breast cancer who underwent SLNB at Duke from 2011 to 2012, two protocols for preoperative lymphoscintigraphy were used: protocol A included both immediate and delayed lymphoscintigraphy (n = 152), while protocol B involved immediate lymphoscintigraphy only (n = 103).