Is Sentinel Node Biopsy Accurate?
Many surgeons agree that breast cancer may be accurately staged without having to remove any lymph nodes besides the sentinel node. Nevertheless, researchers are finding that a low percentage of sentinel node biopsy results can turn out to be false negatives. That is, the sentinel nodes do not contain cancer when, in fact, the patients other axillary lymph nodes do contain cancer. This has been an important teaching point in many advanced courses presented to physicians who perform sentinel node biopsy. If a physician is uneasy about the looks of a sentinel node, even though it is not cancerous, the surgeon will typically remove additional lymph nodes to check their status. The scenario of a negative (non-cancerous) sentinel node and positive (cancerous) additional nodes in a patient can occur for several reasons, including: The timing of the dye injections The type of dye/tracers used The presence of more than one sentinel node The way in which the initial node was sectioned or staine
