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Sentinel lymph nodes in cancer of the oral cavity – isolated tumour cells
Author(s) -
Thomsen Jørn Bo,
Sørensen Jens Ahm,
Krogdahl Annelise
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of oral pathology and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1600-0714
pISSN - 0904-2512
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0714.2004.00289.x
Subject(s) - micrometastasis , lymph , medicine , sentinel lymph node , pathology , lymph node , metastasis , biopsy , cancer , breast cancer
Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy, step sectioning and immunohistochemistry have changed detection of tumour deposits. Isolated tumour cells (ITC) are detected more frequently than earlier because of a changed level of detection. Methods: A total of 108 sentinel lymph nodes from 30 patients with T1/T2 cN0 oral cancer were re‐classified histologically to find possible ITC and to describe technical pitfalls. Results: Primarily we found metastatic spread in 12 of 108 sentinel lymph nodes: five macrometastasis and seven micrometastasis. After re‐classification, we found seven lymph nodes with macrometastasis, five with micrometastasis and two with ITC. Conclusion: The ITC are probably precursors of micrometastasis waiting to grow and should be treated as such. Benign inclusions and dendritic cells did not cause problems, but can mimic ITC.