Factors affecting the number of sentinel lymph nodes removed in patients having surgery for breast cancer
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Julia Grewar; Ashley Graham; J Michael Dixon; Carlos Martinez-Perez; Arran K Turnbull; Dominique Twelves
- Source
- Dixon, J M, Grewar, J, Twelves, D, Graham, A, Martinez-perez, C & Turnbull, A 2020, ' Factors affecting the number of sentinel lymph nodes removed in patients having surgery for breast cancer ', Breast cancer research and treatment . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05843-8
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
- Subject
- Cancer Research
medicine.medical_specialty
Staging
Sentinel lymph node
Breast Neoplasms
030230 surgery
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Breast cancer
Biopsy
Medicine
Humans
In patient
Neoplasm Staging
medicine.diagnostic_test
business.industry
Breast surgeons
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy
Sentinel node
medicine.disease
Clinical Trial
Neoadjuvant Therapy
Surgery
Treatment
Axilla
medicine.anatomical_structure
Oncology
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
Lymph Node Excision
Female
Lymph
Lymph Nodes
Sentinel Lymph Node
business
- Language
- English
Purpose The goal of sentinel lymph node biopsy is to establish the presence or absence of cancer cells in regional axillary nodes. The number of sentinel nodes harvested from each patient varies. The aim of this study was to determine what factors influence the number of sentinel nodes excised at sentinel node biopsy. Methods Data from 426 patients with breast cancer who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy at the Edinburgh Breast Unit by 10 different experienced breast surgeons were included in this analysis. Univariate and multivariable statistical analysis was performed. Results In the multivariate analysis the number of sentinel nodes biopsied varied significantly between operating surgeon (p p p Conclusions This study shows that the surgeon plays a pivotal and significant role in determining the numbers of sentinel nodes removed by sentinel lymph node biopsy. Surgeons should monitor their own data on the average numbers of sentinel nodes they remove. Some surgeons may not be removing sufficient numbers of sentinel nodes to maintain a low false negative rate for this procedure.