Identification of Sentinel Lymph Node in Breast Cancer by Intro-dermal Methylthionium Injection / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the method of biological dye injection for detecting sentinel lymph node(SLN) in breast cancer, and explore the accuracy of evaluating axillary lymph node status by SLN biopsy(SLNB). Methods Intro-dermal methylthionium injection during operation was applied to identify SLN in 71 breast cancer patients, and the detection results were compared with the metastasis status of dissected axillary lymph nodes. Results SLN was identified in 70 of 71 patients(97%) using methylthionium injection. Total 188 SLNs were detected in all patients, each patient having 1～4 SLNs(average 2 7). The false negative rate of methylthionium injection for detecting SLN was 2%(1/42). The sensitivity, specificity and accurate rate of SLN to predict axillary lymph node metastasis status were 96%, 100% and 97% respectively. Conclusion Intro-dermal methylthionium injection can identify SLN and accurately predict the axillary lymph node status . This method is cheap and can be widely used.