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Added value of ultrasound in screening the clinically negative axilla in breast cancer
Author(s) -
Mathijssen I.M.J.,
Strijdhorst H.,
Kiestra S.K.,
Wereldsma J.C.J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/jso.20590
Subject(s) - medicine , axilla , palpation , breast cancer , sentinel node , radiology , biopsy , ultrasound , axillary lymph node dissection , axillary dissection , dissection (medical) , lymph node , sentinel lymph node , cancer
Background For staging purposes in breast cancer it is current practice to perform a sentinel node biopsy in a clinically negative axilla, followed by an axillary lymph node dissection if metastases are found in the sentinel node. To limit the number of surgical procedures it is therefore of importance to try and identify as much patients as possible who have axillary metastases. Clinical staging of the axillary nodes in breast cancer is mainly based on palpation, but ultrasound has been shown to be of additional value in detecting pathological nodes. Methods In this paper, we report our results of screening 131 breast cancer patients without palpable axillary nodes through ultrasound. Results Out of the 53 patients with axillary node involvement, 18 were identified as such by our radiologist, resulting in a detection score of 34%. Discussion This high rate is probably reached because of the limited number of radiologists performing this procedure, thereby rapidly increasing their experience. J. Surg. Oncol. 2006;94:364–367. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.