Sentinel node biopsy in the surgical management of breast cancer: experience in a general hospital with a dedicated surgical team

The aims of this study were to analyse the feasibility and accuracy of the sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) procedure as performed in a general hospital compared with the literature results; to report on the organizational aspects of planning surgical time with higher accuracy of pathological analysis; and to verify that there is a real advantage of SLNB in the surgical management of breast cancer. From October 1999 to September 2000, 371 consecutive patients with T1–2N0 breast lesions underwent SLNB. The immunoscintigraphic method of sentinel node identification was the main one used, the blue dye method being used only when the lymphoscintigraphic method was unsuccessful in identifying sentinel nodes. SLNB was done under either general or local anaesthesia, depending on how the surgical procedure was organized and clinically planned. SLNB was successful in 99% of these T1–2N0 breast cancer cases, and in 71% no metastases were found in the sentinel node. In 47% of cases with axillary metastasis only the sentinel node was involved. Nodal involvement was not present in any case of microinvasive or in situ carcinoma. In T1 cancers nodal involvement was present in 21%; in T2 cases the corresponding rate reached 51%. The results obtained with the SLNB procedure at Bergamo Hospital are similar to the literature data. When a dedicated surgical team, the nuclear medicine department and the pathology department work together, a general hospital can provide breast cancer patients with appropriate surgical treatment.