Sentinel node biopsy in early breast cancer at the Hospital Comarcal La Linea (Spain).

Objective: Our objective was to determine the identification and the percentage of false negatives in sentinel node biopsies in patients with early breast cancer at the Hospital La Línea (Spain), during the period between November 2007 and September 2010.

Methods: We collected 50 patients with early breast cancer, without clinical and ultrasonographic involvement of axillary nodes, from November 2007 to September 2010. We used the vital dye in the first 20 patients and the combined technique of vital dye and albumin labelled with technetium 99 in the other 30 patients.

Metaplastic carcinoma of the breast, an unusual disease with worse prognosis: the experience of the European Institute of Oncology and review of the literature.

Background: Metaplastic carcinoma of the breast is a rare form of breast cancer and has an uncertain prognostic significance. The purpose of the present study was to compare the clinical course, and prognosis, between this type of tumor and poorly differentiated ductal carcinoma.

Patients And Methods: We analyzed 37 cases of metaplastic carcinoma of the breast treated at our institution (European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy) between 1997 and 2004, comparing them with 72 cases (control group) of poorly differentiated ductal carcinoma.

Report on a case of breast sarcoma metastatic to the axillary lymph nodes.

Breast sarcoma is a rare entity that accounts for less than 1% of all breast malignancies; it may spread by direct invasion and/or through the blood. Axillary lymph node involvement is extremely rare and usually associated with advanced-stage disease. In the surgical treatment of this neoplasm, complete axillary lymphadenectomy is important for the local clearance of the clinically involved lymph nodes.