ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Lymph node status is the most important predictive factor in colorectal carcinoma. Recurrences occur in 20% of the patients without lymph node metastases. The sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is a tool to facilitate identification of micrometastatic disease and aberrant lymphatic drainage. We studied the feasibility of in vivo SLN detection in a multi-centre setting and evaluated nodal micro-staging using immunohistochemistry (IHC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sub-serosal injection with Patent Blue dye was used in the SLN procedure in 69 patients operated for localized colon cancer in six Dutch hospitals. Each SLN was examined with routine haematoxylin-eosin staining. In tumour-negative SLNs, we performed CK7/8 or 18 IHC. RESULTS: The procedure was successful in 67 of 69 patients (97%). The SLN was negative in 43 patients. In three cases, it was false negative, resulting in a negative predictive value of 93% and an accuracy of 96%. In 24 of 27 patients with lymph node metastases in a successful SLN procedure, the SLN was positive (sensitivity 89%). In 15 patients, the SLN was the only positive node (21%). In nine patients, we only found micrometastases or isolated tumour cells, resulting in 18% upstaging. Aberrant lymphatic drainage was seen in three patients (4%). CONCLUSION: The SLN procedure in localized colon carcinoma is reliable in a multi-centre setting. It is helpful to identify patients who would be classified as stage II with conventional staging (18%) and who might benefit from adjuvant treatment.
Subject(s)
Colonic Neoplasms/pathology , Coloring Agents , Lymph Nodes/pathology , Rosaniline Dyes , Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy , Colonic Neoplasms/chemistry , False Negative Reactions , Feasibility Studies , Humans , Immunohistochemistry , Keratin-18/analysis , Keratin-7/analysis , Keratin-8/analysis , Lymph Nodes/chemistry , Lymphatic Metastasis , Neoplasm Staging , Netherlands , Predictive Value of Tests , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The axillary nodal status may influence the prognosis and the choice of adjuvant treatment of individual breast cancer patients. The variation in number of reported axillary lymph nodes and its effect on the axillary nodal stage were studied and the implications are discussed. METHODS: Between 1994 and 1997, a total of 4,806 axillary dissections for invasive breast cancers in 4,715 patients were performed in hospitals in the North-Netherlands. The factors associated with the number of reported nodes and the relation of this number with the nodal status and the number of positive nodes were studied. RESULTS: The number of reported nodes varied significantly between pathology laboratories, the median number of nodes ranged from 9 to 15, respectively. The individual hospitals explained even more variability in the number of nodes than pathology laboratories (range in median number 8-15, P < 0.0001). The number of reported nodes increased gradually during the study period. A decreasing trend was observed with older patient age. A higher number of reported nodes was associated with a markedly increased chance of finding tumor positive nodes, especially more than three nodes. The frequency of node positivity increased from 28% if less than six nodes to 54% if >/=20 nodes were examined, the percentage of tumors with >/=4 positive nodes increased from 4 to 31%. Multivariate analysis confirmed these results. CONCLUSIONS: This population-based study showed a large variation in the number of reported lymph nodes between hospitals. A more extensive surgical dissection or histopathological examination of the specimen generally resulted in a higher number of positive nodes. Although the impact of misclassification on adjuvant treatment will have varied, the impact with regard to adjuvant regional radiotherapy may have been considerable.
