Open AccessNew concepts in axillary management of breast cancer
Author(s) -
Can Atalay
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
world journal of clinical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2218-4333
DOI - 10.5306/wjco.v5.i5.895
Subject(s) - medicine , axilla , breast cancer , sentinel lymph node , sentinel node , axillary lymph node dissection , axillary dissection , general surgery , mastectomy , surgery , dissection (medical) , biopsy , radical mastectomy , lymph node , cancer , radiology
In the last decades, surgical treatment of breast cancer has evolved from more extensive procedures like radical mastectomy to less invasive breast conserving surgery. Similarly, surgical management of axilla has enormously changed from routine axillary dissection to sentinel lymph node biopsy. Traditional surgical approach to the axilla in case of sentinel lymph node negativity is to avoid completion axillary dissection. However, surgeons even avoid performing axillary dissection in selected patients with positive sentinel lymph node in clinical practice depending on the recent randomized controlled studies supporting this concept. All of the recent changes in the management of positive axilla necessitate surgeons to refresh their knowledge on this challenging topic.