Accuracy and feasibility of SentiMag technique for localization of non-palpable breast lesions.

BACKGROUND: Non-palpable breast lesions are more frequent now than in the past due to the attention toward the mammary pathology and the screening diffusion; the marking of such lesions is very important for a successful surgery. The SentiMag System uses a magnetic marker that is inoculated transdermal in the breast through an 18-gauge needle. METHODS: Between April 1st and June 30th, 2018, 16 patients with non-palpable breast lesions were selected and subjected to surgery using the SentiMag System in our Unit. They were women with a mean age of 52 years (range 30-84 years). Seven of 16 (43.7%) had a borderline preoperative histological or cytological diagnosis (C3/B3), and nine (56.3%) a diagnosis of carcinoma (C5/B5). Six (37.5%) were marked on ultrasound guidance and 10 (62.5%) on a mammography stereotaxic guide. RESULTS: The time for the marker positioning ranged from 2 to 10 minutes. The radiological control of the surgical specimen always showed the presence of both the lesion and the marker, both centered within the specimen and intact. The pathology revealed seven benign lesions, one in-situ, and eight infiltrating carcinomas. CONCLUSIONS: The SentiMag represents a fast and safe preoperative marking system of non-palpable breast lesions, cutting the radio exposure for personnel and patients. The marker is not displaced over time and it is rapid to place and easy to locate intraoperatively, allowing a clear dissection plane around the lesion. Thus, this reduces the amount of gland removed, improving the aesthetic result mostly in small breasts.

[Bilateral phylloid cystosarcoma of the breast: a case report and review of the literature]. / Cistosarcoma filloide bilaterale della mammella: caso clinico e rassegna della letteratura.

Phylloides tumours are unusual neoplasms, accounting for less than 0.5% of breast tumours and approximately 2.5% of fibro-epithelial tumours. They usually present as fast-growing, painless masses, with a high local recurrence rate. Grading and an adequate surgical resection with tumour-free margins are the most important factors predictive of recurrence. The treatment is based on surgery, with poor results reported for chemo- and radiotherapy, but controversy still exists as to whether the best surgical approach consists in radical or conservative procedures, depending upon tumour size at diagnosis. The authors report the case of a patient affected by a metachronous bilateral malignant phylloid tumour of the breast, involving regional nodes and with a single pulmonary metastasis. The patient was treated with radical surgery including a bilateral mastectomy, an axillary dissection and a right inferior pulmonary lobectomy. Unfortunately, even this substantially aggressive management was unable to change the final outcome of the disease. The review of the literature on the subject is consistent with a preferably conservative surgical treatment also in advanced stages of the disease.

Preliminary study on radioguided sentinel node identification in colon cancer.

The purpose of this study was to prove the prognostic value of the sentinel node (SN) in colon tumors, and to validate radioguided surgery in identifying the SN. Nodal metastases are a strong prognostic factor in patients operated on for colon or rectal cancer, decreasing the 5-year survival rate by approximately 20 per cent and dropping it to 30 per cent. Unfortunately, of 50 per cent of patients judged to be nodal disease-free at surgery, about 20 to 30 per cent will die from a local tumor relapse or distant metastases within 5 years of diagnosis. These data suggest that other steps are needed for more precise staging of patients, and specifically, to accurately harvest and study the nodes on which to base the prognosis. Mapping lymph nodes predictive of the whole basin status, referred to as SN, may help focus the pathologist's attention on a small but representative target, and achieve correct nodal harvesting, which includes atypical drainage pathways, when present. Twenty selected patients with colon tumor were administered a subserosal, peritumoral, intraoperative injection of blue dye and 99mTc-marked colloidal particles. The SN was identified visually and with a handheld gamma probe and was subsequently stitch-labeled. The operation was then conducted after standard surgical procedures, and the required lymphadenectomy was performed. Later, the probe was used to confirm radioactivity in the excised specimen and the absence of radioactivity in the operative field after resection; the purpose of the latter was to exclude the presence of aberrant routes of lymphatic drainage. The labeled SN were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and, in case of negative findings, cytokeratin immunostaining was performed. The remaining resected nodes were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The probe identification of SN was 95 per cent overall (19/20); in 13 patients, a single SN was labeled, and two were labeled in six patients, harvesting 25 SN. In the 19 patients in whom a radioemitting SN was labeled, we recorded only one false-negative; in one case, a micrometastasis in the SN was the only extracolonic site. The blue dye identified the SN in 14 cases; in some of them, the number of nodes was overestimated (five single, seven double, and two triple SN) in comparison with the radioisotope, but at least one of the dyed nodes was also radioemitting. SN identification in colon cancers is a safe, fast, and easy procedure for ultrastaging the nodal basin. The technique involves a relatively flat learning curve and could become standard care for identifying the presence of nodal micrometastases at a low cost, thereby also making it affordable at small health centers.