Sentinel Lymph Node as a Disease Prognosticator in Node Negative Breast Cancer

摘要

The purpose of this study is to use sentinel node technology to better predict prognosis for node negative patients. Patients with a new diagnosis of unilateral, unifocal breast cancer and a clinically negative axilla were offered enrollment in this protocol. Sentinel nodes were localized and resected along with the standard staging axillary dissection. The sentinel nodes were processed both in the standard fashion and were saved for specialized studies including microsectioning and telomerase studies to be carried out in a delayed fashion by protocol requirement. Short-term goals are: (1) to determine the proportion of patients considered node negative who harbor micrometatasis or telomerase in the sentinel node, and (2) to determine the association of nuclear grade and ki-67 with the finding of micrometastasis in the sentinel node. Long- term goals include evaluation of the association of sentinel node micrometastasis and telomerase with disease free survival and overall survival. In the time interval covered by this report, a total of 86 patients entered this study ranging in age from 38 to 87. All enrolled patients have been female. Both short-term outcomes and long-term outcomes are pending at this time as required by the protocol.