Identification of the sentinel node by ultrasonography in patients with breast cancer.

Background: Identification of the sentinel node (SN) in patients with breast cancer is done by tracking a radioactive tracer, a vital dye, or both, as the marker(s) reach the axilla. Replacing this method with ultrasonographic (US) recognition of the SN could eventually spare patients the need for systemic anesthesia, permit minimally invasive outpatient biopsy of the node, and allow the formulation of a precise therapeutic plan before a definitive surgical procedure.

Methods: Eighty-eight axillae of 84 patients with a histologic diagnosis of breast cancer were studied by injecting the subareolar area of the affected breast(s) with technetium 99 and an iron preparation before the planned surgical procedure and SN biopsy.

Cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow of breast cancer patients and noncancer donors.

Detection of disseminated tumor cells in the bone marrow may provide important prognostic information in breast cancer patients. With few exceptions the number of stained cells scored as cancer is very low; there may be only 1 cell per slide. This makes definitive interpretation of cancer in marrow challenging.