Sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the accuracy of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) to predict the axillary lymph node status in breast cancer patients and its clinical significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Seventy patients with clinical TNM status T(1 - 2)N(0)M(0) underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy using Tc-99m sulfur colloid radiotracer and gamma probe, which was followed by standard axillary dissection. SLNB was compared with standard axillary dissection for its ability to reflect the final pathological status of the axillary nodes. The SLNs that were tumor negative in conventional HE staining were further evaluated using immunohistochemical stains for CK8, CK19 and KP-1 antibodies.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sentinel lymph node (SLN) was successfully identified in 67 (95.7%) out of 70 patients. The number of sentinel nodes harvested ranged from 1 to 5 (average 1.6). The nonsentinel nodes ranged from 5 to 20 (average 12.3). Of the 67 patients, 29 (43.3%) had histologically positive axillary lymph nodes. SLN was positive in 24 patients with metastasis (35.8%), and in 7 patients without metastasis (10.4%). In 5 patients, SLN was negative for tumor with positive nodes. The accuracy of sentinel lymph node biopsy to predict the axillary lymph node status was 92.5% and the false negative rate was 7.5%. For tumors with diameter less than or equal to 2 cm, the accuracy was 100%. 65 SLNs that were negative for HE stain were also non-reactive to immunostain for CK8 and CK19 antibody.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>SLNB can accurately predict the axillary lymph node status in most of breast cancer patients. The accuracy is about 100% in patients with T(1) lesions. Immunohistochemical staining at the same level of HE stain can not increase the detection of lymph node micrometastasis.</p>

Advances in breast cancer clinical research / 中国癌症杂志

New theory, technology and drugs have stinulated clinical research of breast cancer. The typical method for early detection of breast cancer consisted of self examination, clinical breast examination by a health professional and mammography, both fiberoptic ductoscopy and ductal lavage cytology could be effective supplements. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is a potential means of avoiding axillary dissection in women with clinically negative axillary patients without influencing the survival. New drugs and regimes had improved complete response in neoadjuvant setting so as to further treatment. Breast conserving therapy with local excision and radiation is well established as an option in the treatment of localized breast cancer, but social and economic factors of the patients should be considered aside from pathological and clinical factors. It is evident that emphasis on early detection, systemic treatment as well as more limited surgery are the trend of breast cancer treatment today.

Establishment of Two Cell Lines with Double Markers and Comparison between Their Abilities for Detecting Replication-Competent Retro viruses / 中国肿瘤生物治疗杂志

In this study, we use retroviral vectors, LXSN (containing internal promoter) and GCEN(containing internal ribosomal entry site,IRES), which cany ?galactosidare gene (LacZ) and neomycin phosphotransferase gene (Neo_R) as double markers, to establish two cell lines, LG-3T3 and GG-3T3. The sensitivities of the two cell lines for detecting replication-competent retroviruses(RCR) in marker rescue test were compared. Our results indicated that both cell lines can be used in marker rescue test, the sentivity of GG-3T3 was 100 times higher than that of LG-3T3.