Axillary sentinel node and tumour-related factors associated with non-sentinel node involvement in breast cancer.

Background: After completion of axillary dissection, many breast cancer patients with axillary sentinel nodal involvement are found to have regional disease limited to the sentinel nodes. These patients are exposed to the morbidity of axillary clearance without any expected therapeutic benefit.

Methods: Sentinel node biopsy was performed either with Patent blue dye or with a combined dye, radiocolloid and gamma-probe-guided method involving peritumoral tracer administration.