A comparison of indocyanine green fluorescence imaging plus blue dye and blue dye alone for sentinel node navigation surgery in breast cancer patients.

Purpose: To evaluate two methods of sentinel node navigation surgery (SNNS) using blue dye with and without indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence imaging (FI) to determine the usefulness of combined ICG and blue dye.

Methods: Between 2005 and 2010, a total of 501 patients underwent SNNS in our hospital. Detection of sentinel lymph node (SLN) was performed with sulfan blue (SB) alone until 2008 and with a combination of SB and ICG-FI since 2009.

[Responses to primary systemic therapy for breast cancer as assessed by hormone receptor and HER2 status].

The aim of this study was to investigate responses to primary systemic therapy (PST) for breast cancer, by hormone receptor (HR) and HER2 status. This study included 107 women with T>3 cm and/or node-positive breast cancer who received PST at this department between March 2004 and January 2009. Treatment with epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (EC) followed by docetaxel (DTX) therapy was undertaken up to December 2005.