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Is the one‐step nucleic acid amplification assay better for intra‐operative assessment of breast sentinel nodes?
Author(s) -
Bettington Mark,
Lakhani Sunil R.,
Ung Owen A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1111/ans.12497
Subject(s) - medicine , nucleic acid , computational biology , genetics , biology
Background Intra‐operative assessment of sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer offers the opportunity to prevent two‐stage surgical procedures. At our institution we employ touch imprint cytology ( TIC ), which lacks sensitivity. In this study we compare the one‐step nucleic acid amplification ( OSNA ) assay to TIC . Methods Imprints were taken from 63 lymph nodes from 35 patients. The lymph nodes were sectioned at 2‐mm intervals and alternate slices submitted for either histology or OSNA assay, with histology as the reference standard. Results Seven patients were histologically positive. Nine and five patients were positive by OSNA and TIC , respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value for the OSNA assay were 85.7%, 85.7%, 63.6% and 96.6% and for TIC were 70.0%, 96.6%, 87.5% and 90.3%. Conclusion In this study OSNA had a higher sensitivity than TIC . Fewer patients assessed by the OSNA assay would have required a two‐stage procedure. The OSNA assay appears to be a highly cost‐effective method for providing rapid and reliable intra‐operative assessment of sentinel lymph nodes.