Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Breast Cancer Patients: Surgery Implications

Breast cancer is expected to affect one out of every seven women. Even with early detection and screening, many women are at-risk for long term health complications associated with breast cancer development. When diagnosed with breast cancer, the first major decision to be made involves the type of surgery to remove the malignant tissue.

If you've been diagnosed with breast cancer, in an effort to address your surgical needs, your physician may recommend a surgery known as SLNB, or sentinel lymph node biopsy. As a procedure by which the axillary is staged, you surgeon can determine what, if any, risks for metastasis may have already occurred.

Because sentinel lymph node biopsy is a limited procedure, there are some physicians who opt not to proceed with this form of care. Instead, the decision is often made to examine and assess the lymph nodes at the time of the breast cancer surgery. Testing the radioactivity of the sentinel lymph node often provides for an indication as to the staging of the breast cancer risk and the risk for metastases. If the sentinel lymph nodes are found to contain a radioactive level, surgical removal is often indicated.

In some physician office settings, a diagnostic procedure known as preoperative lymphatic mapping may even be considered. As a scan that used dye, the procedure, in theory, should provide some insight into the radioactivity of the lymph nodes. However, even with sentinel lymph node biopsy, or simple removal of the nodes during breast surgery, most physicians find this diagnostic study to be unnecessary. In fact, there is a significantly higher risk for false-positive and false-negative results in response to the lymphatic mapping procedure. With an accuracy rate below 50 percent, many breast cancer patients are opting to forego lymphatic mapping and simply remove the lymphatic tissue within the axillary.