Sentinel lymph node micrometastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the optimal methods of detecting micrometastasis of sentinel lymph node(SLN) in papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC).Methods Data of 51 consecutive PTC patients without clinical evidence of cervical lymph node metastasis were analyzed.They were conducted with SLN localization with blue dye,technetium-labeled sulfur colloid or the combination of them from Aug.2007 to Sep.2010.55 SLNs from 18 cases were selected.No metastasis was found to these 55 SLNs by routine pathological section.The 55 SLNs were serially sectioned at a 50 μm interval and stained by both HE and immunohistochemistry for detecting micrometastasis.Results SLN was successfully identified in all the 51 cases,with SLN identification rate of 100％.Among the 18 cases without metastasis to SLN by routine pathological section,5 cases were found micrometastasis by step sectioning plus immunohistochemically stains.The false negative rate was reduced from 15.4％ by routine pathological section to 2.6％ by step sectioning plus immunohistochemically stains.Conclusion Cytokeratin immunohistochemistry on series sections is a reliable method in detecting SLN micrometastasis in PTC.