Sentinel Node and Recurrent Breast Cancer (SNARB): results of a nationwide registration study.

Background: Knowledge of regional lymph node involvement is important in patients with recurrent breast cancer for obtaining better locoregional control and predicting prognosis. To determine technical feasibility, validity, aberrant drainage rates, and clinical consequences of performing repeat sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in patients with locally recurrent breast cancer we conducted the "Sentinel Node and Recurrent Breast Cancer (SNARB)" study.

Methods: A total of 150 patients with locally recurrent breast cancer underwent lymphatic mapping and SNB.

[Low back pain and MRI-abnormalities: atypical polymyalgia rheumatica].

A 64-year-old man was admitted to hospital with increasing low back pain, radiating to his upper legs. MRI of the lumbar spine showed inflammatory lesions of vertebrae L3-L5, after which the patient was treated with flucloxacilline for 6 weeks. However, he did not improve and the pain became more extensive.

Diagnostic accuracy and interobserver variability of plain radiography, subtraction arthrography, nuclear arthrography, and bone scintigraphy in the assessment of aseptic femoral component loosening.

Background: Plain radiography, subtraction arthrography, nuclear arthrography, and bone scintigraphy are imaging techniques commonly used to identify aseptic femoral component loosening. Controversy exists about the relative utility of these techniques.

Patients And Methods: We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy and interobserver reliability of the four techniques in 78 consecutive patients (mean age 70 years, range 29-88 years) referred for evaluation of their femoral hip prostheses.

Osteoid osteoma of the spine: a novel technique using combined computer-assisted and gamma probe-guided high-speed intralesional drill excision.

Study Design: A report of five cases of thoracolumbar osteoid osteoma treated with combined computer-assisted and gamma probe-guided high-speed drill excision.

Objectives: To document the surgical technique consisting of a combination of both computer-assisted and gamma probe-guided high-speed drill excision for osteoid osteoma of the spine.

Summary Of Background Data: Curative treatment of spinal osteoid osteoma is performed by surgical intralesional excision of the nidus, but intraoperative localization of the nidus is often difficult.

Histopathologic validation of the sentinel node concept in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: In patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the presence of lymph node metastases is the most important prognosticator. Sentinel node (SN) biopsy has been shown to be an accurate staging technique for patients with breast cancer and melanoma and might also be suited for patients with HNSCC. This study was undertaken to determine whether the SN concept holds true for HNSCC and could be exploited for SN biopsy.

A comparison of radiographic and scintigraphic techniques to assess aseptic loosening of the acetabular component in a total hip replacement.

Background: The diagnosis of a loose total hip prosthesis is often established with use of radiographic and nuclear medicine techniques, but there is controversy about the relative utility of plain radiography, subtraction arthrography, nuclear arthrography, and bone scintigraphy. In this retrospective study, we evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, and interobserver reliability of these imaging modalities in patients suspected of having aseptic loosening of the acetabular component.

Methods: From 1994 to 1999, eighty-six consecutive patients with pain after a total hip arthroplasty were evaluated for possible loosening of the components.

Omitting axillary lymph node dissection in sentinel node negative breast cancer patients is safe: a long term follow-up analysis.

Purpose: To evaluate the rate of axillary recurrences in sentinel node (SN) negative breast cancer patients without further axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

Patients And Methods: Between October 1994 and November 1999, all SN negative breast cancer patients who did not underwent complete ALND were enrolled in this prospective study. SN biopsy was performed by using the triple technique which combines preoperative lymphoscintigraphy, intraoperative use of blue dye, and a handheld gamma probe to visualize and localize the SN.

Clinical relevance of parasternal uptake in sentinel node procedure for breast cancer.

Background And Objectives: Preoperative lymphoscintigraphy contributes highly to the accuracy of the sentinel node procedure. Besides routing towards the axilla, in a number of patients additional parasternal focal accumulation may be observed. So far the clinical consequences of this parasternal uptake remains unclarified, i.

The sentinel node in cervical cancer: scintigraphy and laparoscopic gamma probe-guided biopsy.

The sentinel node (SN) procedure has been proven to be a valuable technique in the staging and treatment of a number of solid tumours. We evaluated the feasibility of SN biopsy with a laparoscopic gamma probe and dye guidance in 34 patients with clinically localised cervical cancer. After peritumoural injection of 140 MBq 99mTc colloidal albumin, dynamic and late static images were obtained.

Initial experience with a prototype dual-crystal (LSO/NaI) dual-head coincidence camera in oncology.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vivo performance of a prototype dual-crystal [lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO)/sodium iodide (NaI)] dual-head coincidence camera (DHC) for PET and SPET (LSO-PS), in comparison to BGO-PET with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in oncology. This follows earlier reports that LSO-PS has noise-equivalent counting (NEC) rates comparable to partial ring BGO-PET, i.e.

Sentinel node biopsy for nonpalpable breast tumors requires a preoperative diagnosis of invasive breast cancer.

A sentinel node biopsy done at the time of initial tumor resection allows for a one-stage surgical procedure. In addition, sentinel node identification may be impaired when done after a previous tumor excision. This study evaluates the sentinel node biopsy in patients with nonpalpable breast cancer and assesses whether a sentinel node biopsy for mammographically suspect breast lesions is justified when preoperative needle biopsy is inconclusive for invasive malignancy.

Laparoscopic detection of sentinel lymph nodes followed by lymph node dissection in patients with early stage cervical cancer.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of sentinel node detection through laparoscopy in patients with early cervical cancer. Furthermore, the results of laparoscopic pelvic lymph node dissection were studied, validated by subsequent laparotomy.

Methods: Twenty-five patients with early stage cervical cancer who planned to undergo a radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection received an intracervical injection of technetium-99m colloidal albumin as well as blue dye.

Determinants of diagnostic performance of [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for axillary staging in breast cancer.

Objective: To prospectively investigate determinants of the accuracy of staging axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer using [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET).

Methods: Patients with primary operable breast cancer underwent FDG PET of the chest followed by sentinel node biopsy (SNB, n = 47) and/or complete axillary lymph node dissection (ALND, n = 23). PET scans were independently interpreted by three observers in a blinded fashion with respect to the FDG avidity of the primary tumor and the axillary status.

Pattern and incidence of first site recurrences following sentinel node procedure in melanoma patients.

Studies of large series of melanoma patients indicated that the average incidence of developing a recurrence during follow-up was 40%. The most frequent first sites of these recurrences were the regional lymph nodes. We hypothesized that the sentinel node (SN) procedure may change the pattern of recurrence by reducing the number of first recurrences in the regional lymph node basin during follow-up to a negligible number, and that locoregional cutaneous and distance metastases are the major future sites of recurrence.

Unpredictability of lymphatic drainage patterns in melanoma patients.

We analysed the localisations of sentinel nodes (SN) found with the SN procedure to compare these sites with those that would have been predicted by conventional clinical descriptions of cutaneous lymphatic drainage. We assessed the surplus value of performing the SN procedure in melanoma patients who underwent regional nodal surgery. The SN procedure was performed in 348 patients with melanomas who were referred to our institute between 1993 and 1999.

Wait-and-see policy for the N0 neck in early-stage oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma using ultrasonography-guided cytology: is there a role for identification of the sentinel node?

Background: Management of the N0 neck in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) remains controversial. We describe the outcome of patients who underwent transoral tumor excision and a wait-and-see policy for the neck staged N0 by ultrasonography-guided cytology (USgFNAC). Because selection of lymph nodes for USgFNAC is currently based on size criteria, we investigated the additional value of sentinel node (SN) identification.