scholarly journals False-Negative Frozen Section of Sentinel Nodes in Early Breast Cancer Patients

Author(s):  
Zhu-Jun Loh ◽  
Kuo-Ting Lee ◽  
Ya-Ping Chen ◽  
Yao-Lung Kuo ◽  
Wei-Pang Chung ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is the standard approach of the axillary region for early breast cancer patients with clinically negative nodes. The present study investigated patients with false-negative sentinel nodes of intraoperative frozen section (FNSNs) in real-world data.Methods: A case–control study with a 1:3 ratio was conducted. FNSN was diagnosed when sentinel nodes (SNs) are negative in frozen sections but positive for metastasis in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections. The control was defined as having no metastasis of SNs in both frozen and FFPE sections.Results: A total of 20 FNSN cases and 60 matched controls were enrolled from 333 SLNB patients between April 1, 2005, and November 31, 2009. The demographics and intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer were similar between FNSN and controls. The FNSN patients had larger tumor sizes in preoperative mammography (P = 0.033) and more lymphatic tumor emboli in core biopsy (P < 0.001). Four FNSN patients had metastasis in the non-relevant SNs. Another 16 FNSN patients had benign lymphoid hyperplasia of SNs in frozen sections and metastasis in the same SNs from the FFPE sections. Micrometastasis was detected in seven of 16 patients, and metastases in non-relevant SNs were recognized in two patients. All FNSN patients received a second operation with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). After a median follow-up of 143 months, no FNSN patients developed recurrence of breast cancer. The disease-free survival, disease-specific survival, and overall survival in FNSN were not inferior to the controls.Conclusions: The patients with a larger tumor size and more lymphatic tumor emboli have a higher incidence of FNSN. However, outcomes of FNSN patients after completing ALND were noninferior to those without metastasis in SNs. ALND provides a correct diagnosis of patients with metastasis in non-sentinel axillary lymph nodes.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhu-Jun Loh ◽  
Kuo-Ting Lee ◽  
Ya-Ping Chen ◽  
Yao-Lung Kuo ◽  
Wei-Pang Chung ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is standard approach of axillary region for early breast cancer patients with clinically negative node. The present study investigated patients with false-negative sentinel nodes (FNSN) of intraoperative frozen section.Methods A case-control study with 1:3 ratio was conducted. FNSN was diagnosed as negative sentinel nodes (SNs) in frozen sections, but positive for metastasis in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks. Control was defined no metastasis of SNs in both frozen and FFPE sections.Results Total 20 FNSN cases and 60 matched-controls were enrolled from 333 SLNB patients between April 1, 2005 and November 31, 2009. The demographics and intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer were similar between FNSN and controls. The FNSN patients had a larger tumor size in preoperative mammography and more lymphatic tumor emboli in core biopsy (P-value 0.033 and < 0.001, respectively). Four FNSN patients had metastasis in the non-relevant SNs. Other 16 FNSN patients had results of benign lymphoid hyperplasia of SNs in frozen sections and metastasis in FFPE blocks. Micrometastasis (less than 2 mm) was detected in seven of 16 patients and metastases in non-sentinel nodes was recognized in two of 16 patients. All FNSN patients received second operation with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). After a median follow-up of 143 months, no FNSN patients developed recurrence of breast cancer. The disease-free survival, disease-specific survival, and overall survival in FNSN were non-inferior than controls.Conclusion Outcomes of FNSN patients after completing ALND was non-inferior to those without metastasis in SNs. ALND improved survival of patients with metastasis non-sentinel ALNs. However, omitting ALND had no effect for those have only micrometastasis in SNs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhu-Jun Loh ◽  
Kuo-Ting Lee ◽  
Ya-Ping Chen ◽  
Yao-Lung Kuo ◽  
Wei-Pang Chung ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is the standard approach for the axillary region in early breast cancer patients with clinically negative nodes. The present study investigated patients with false-negative sentinel nodes in intraoperative frozen sections (FNSN) using real-world data. Methods A case–control study with a 1:3 ratio was conducted. FNSN was determined when sentinel nodes (SNs) were negative in frozen sections but positive for metastasis in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections. The control was defined as having no metastasis of SNs in both frozen and FFPE sections. Results A total of 20 FNSN cases and 60 matched controls from 333 SLNB patients were enrolled between April 1, 2005, and November 31, 2009. The demographics and intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer were similar between the FNSN and control groups. The FNSN patients had larger tumor sizes on preoperative mammography (P = 0.033) and more lymphatic tumor emboli on core biopsy (P < 0.001). Four FNSN patients had metastasis in nonrelevant SNs. Another 16 FNSN patients had benign lymphoid hyperplasia of SNs in frozen sections and metastasis in the same SNs from FFPE sections. Micrometastasis was detected in seven of 16 patients, and metastases in nonrelevant SNs were recognized in two patients. All FNSN patients underwent a second operation with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). After a median follow-up of 143 months, no FNSN patients developed breast cancer recurrence. The disease-free survival, breast cancer-specific survival, and overall survival in FNSN were not inferior to those in controls. Conclusions Patients with a larger tumor size and more lymphatic tumor emboli have a higher incidence of FNSN. However, the outcomes of FNSN patients after completing ALND were noninferior to those without SN metastasis. ALND provides a correct staging for patients with metastasis in nonsentinel axillary lymph nodes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Liu ◽  
Liu Yang ◽  
Xinle Wang ◽  
Meiqi Wang ◽  
Ruoyang Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Axillary lymph node dissection can be avoided in early stage breast cancer patients with negative sentinel lymph node biopsy. However, the possibility of avoiding axillary surgery in patients without axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) by preoperative imaging is still under exploration. Thus, the objectives of this study were to investigate the high-risk factors of false negative of ALNM diagnosed by preoperative ultrasound (US) and to find out who could be avoided axillary surgery in the US negative ALNM patients.Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed 3,361 patients with primary early breast cancer diagnosed in the Breast Center of the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2010 to December 2012. All patients had undergone routine preoperative US and then axillary lymph node dissected. This study investigated the clinicopathological features of axillary lymph node (ALN) negative patients diagnosed by preoperative US and its correlation with prognosis. The follow-up data for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were obtained from 2,357 patients. Results: The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of axillary US in this cohort were 66.24%, 76.62% and 73.87%. The proportion of patients in the false negative group was higher than that in true negative in the group of age < 50 years old (P = 0.002), tumor size > 2cm (P = 0.008), estrogen receptor (ER) positive (P = 0.005), progesterone receptor (PR) high expression (P = 0.007), nuclear-associated antigen Ki-67 (Ki-67) >20% (P = 0.030), visible vascular tumor thrombus (P < 0.001) and histological grade>2 (P < 0.001). Prognostic analysis of false negative and true negative ultrasonographic diagnosis of ALN metastasis: when ALNM was not found by preoperative ultrasound, there was no significant difference in patients with ALNM≤3 compared with patients without lymph node metastasis in patients of age ≥ 50 years old, tumor size ≤ 2cm, Ki-67 ≤ 20%, or histological grade ≤ 2. Conclusion: The surgery of ALN may be avoided for the preoperative US diagnosed ALNs negative in early breast cancer patients who had advanced age, small tumor size, low expression of Ki-67 and low histological grade.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e11584-e11584
Author(s):  
H. Kawaguchi ◽  
H. Shigematsu ◽  
C. Koga ◽  
E. Mori ◽  
S. Nishimura ◽  
...  

e11584 Background: In woman with breast cancer, sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy (SLNB) provides staging information and a favorable effect on quality of life if the SLN does not have metastasis. While many reports already showed safety and reliability about SLNB for breast cancer patients in Western countries, few reports have published from Asian countries. Our purpose of this study is to prove the technical success, accuracy and safety of this method for Asian population. Methods: We did feasibility study of 183 patients from 2000 to 2002. After that, we evaluated detection rate, positive rate, axillary relapse rate in 1,000 consecutive patients who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy for breast cancer at a single institute in Japan from 2002 to August 2008. In this series, both radioactive agent (technetium) and vital blue die (indigocarmine) were used to investigate the SLNs. Results: We could accurately predict SLNs in 994 (99.4%) of the 1,000 patients. The proportion of technical success was high regardless of surgeon's experience. Intraoperative frozen section histology showed that positive SLNs were found in 176 (17.7%) patients (13 micrometastasis and 163 macrometastasis). Defenitive histology found metastasis in 24 cases who defined as negative by the frozen section examination. 15 of 24 (62.5%) cases underwent delayed axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) after definitive histology. The histological concordance between frozen section and permanent sections of SLNs was 97.6%. Finally, 796 patients were followed up without ALND. With a median follow-up time of 3.5 years (0.5–5.2), axillary lymph node recurrence were occurred in 5 patients (5 of 796, 0.6%). The relapse time since SLNB ranged from 16 to 33 months. There were not any patients with allergic reactions. Conclusions: This is the report about observation study including more than 1,000 patients from Asian country. SLNB is seemed to be a safe and acceptably accurate method for Asian early breast cancer patients. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 3239-3243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris M. C. van der Ploeg ◽  
Pieter J. Tanis ◽  
Renato A. Valdés Olmos ◽  
Bin B. R. Kroon ◽  
Emiel J. T. Rutgers ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 11023-11023
Author(s):  
H. Jinno ◽  
S. Asaga ◽  
M. Sakata ◽  
T. Kubota ◽  
M. Kitajima ◽  
...  

11023 Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is a potential alternative procedure to conventional axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in clinically node-negative breast cancer patients. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is a standard of care for patients with locally advanced breast cancer and indications of NAC have been widespread to operable breast cancer patients to facilitate breast conserving surgery. However, the validity of SLNB in breast cancer patients who received NAC is still controversial. Methods: Forty-six patients with stage II or III breast cancer who were treated with NAC from January 2002 to May 2006 were included in the study. Consecutive 122 patients who had SLNB without NAC during the same period were used as a control group. All patients underwent SLNB followed by completion ALND. Sentinel lymph node (SLN) was detected using a combined method of injecting isosulfan blue dye and small-sized technetium- 99m-labeled tin colloid (particle size: 200–400 nm in diameter) peritumorally and subcutaneously. SLNs were evaluated by means of H&E and immunohistochemical staining. Results: SLNs were successfully identified in 42/46 patients (91.3%) treated with NAC and 112/113 patients (99.1%) without NAC (p=0.01). Metastases in the SLNs were found in 16/42 patients (38.1%) with NAC and 32/112 patients (28.6%) without NAC (p=0.2). There were 5 false negative cases (false negative rate: 23.8%) in the NAC group and 2 false negative cases (false negative rate: 5.9%) in the control group (p=0.05). Accuracy of SLNB in the NAC group was also significantly inferior to the control group (88.1% vs. 98.2%, p<0.01). The presence of clinically positive axillary lymph nodes before NAC was not correlated with false negative rate. Conclusions: These data suggest that NAC might be considered a contraindication to SLNB even in patients with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes before NAC. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


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