Preventing Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: Feasibility of Axillary Reverse Mapping Technique

Introduction. Our study aimed to determine the feasibility of axillary reverse mapping (ARM) technique, the identification rate of ARM nodes and their metastatic involvement, as well as to identify the factors that influence the identification and metastatic involvement. Material and methods. In total, 30 breast cancer patients scheduled for axillary lymph node dissection were enrolled in our study. The lymphatic nodes that drain the arm were identified by injecting 1 mL of blue dye in the ipsilateral upper arm; then, the ARM nodes were resected along with the other lymph nodes and sent for histological evaluation. Results. Identification of ARM node was successful in 18 patients (60%) and 22.22% of the identified ARM lymph nodes had metastatic involvement. Patients with identified ARM nodes had a significant lower BMI and a statistically significant relationship between axillary lymph node status and ARM node metastases was proven. Most of ARM lymph nodes (96.3%) were found above the intercostobrachial nerve, under the axillary vein and lateral to the thoracodorsal bundle. Conclusions. The ARM procedure is easy to reproduce but might not be appropriate for patients with a high BMI. The rate of metastatic involvement of ARM nodes is significant and no factor can predict it, showing that the preservation of these nodes cannot be considered.

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Relationship between Upper Extremity Lymphatic Drainage and Sentinel Lymph Nodes in Patients with Breast Cancer

Journal of Oncology ◽

10.1155/2019/8637895 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xiaokai Ma ◽

Shishuai Wen ◽

Baofeng Liu ◽

Dumin Li ◽

Xiaolong Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Upper Extremity ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Lymphatic Drainage ◽

Sentinel Lymph Nodes ◽

Blue Dye ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Axillary Reverse Mapping

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between upper extremity lymphatics and sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) in breast cancer patients.Methods. Forty-four patients who underwent axillary reverse mapping (ARM) during axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) with SNL biopsy (SLNB) between February 2017 and October 2017 were investigated. ARM was performed using indocyanine green (ICG) to locate the upper extremity lymphatics; methylene blue dye was injected intradermally for SLN mapping.Results. ARM nodes were found in the ALND fields of all examined patients. The rate of identification of upper extremity lymphatics within the SLNB field was 65.9% (29 of 44). The ARM nodes were involved in metastases arising from primary breast tumors in 7 of the patients (15.9%), while no metastases were detected in pathologic axillary lymph node-negative patients. Lymphatics from the upper extremity drained into the SLNs in 5 of the 44 patients (11.4%); their ARM-detected nodes were found to be in close proximity to the SLNs.Conclusions. The ARM nodes and SLNs are closely related and share lymphatic drainage routes. The ARM procedure using fluorescence imaging is both feasible and, in patients who are SLN negative, oncologically safe. ARM using ICG is therefore effective for identifying and preserving upper extremity lymphatics, and SLNB combined with ARM appears to be a promising surgical refinement for preventing upper extremity lymphoedema.Clinical Trial Registration. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrial.gov:NCT02651142.

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Prevention of lymphedema via axillary reverse mapping for arm lymph-node preservation following breast cancer surgery: a randomized controlled trial

Patient Safety in Surgery ◽

10.1186/s13037-019-0217-1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mohammed Faisal ◽

Mohamed Gamal Sayed ◽

Kerolos Antonious ◽

Ahmmed Abo Bakr ◽

Sherif Hussein Farag

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Control Group ◽

Study Group ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Axillary Reverse Mapping ◽

Axillary Surgery ◽

Arm Lymphedema ◽

Reverse Mapping

Abstract Background Breast cancer, with an incidence of 32%, is the most frequent cancer among Egyptian women. The frequency of arm lymphedema after axillary surgery for breast cancer ranges from 7 to 77%. Axillary reverse mapping is a technique aimed to distinguish and conserve upper-limb lymphatics and lymph nodes during the course of axillary surgery and could help to prevent arm lymphedema. Methods Patients (n = 48) were prepared for axillary lymph-node dissection. The study group and the control group each contained 24 individuals. In the study group, following dye injection, stained arm lymph nodes and lymphatics were conserved during axillary dissection, whereas control-group participants underwent the conventional procedure. All participants were re-evaluated after 6 months, and the incidence of lymphedema was recorded by measuring arm circumference at a level 10 cm proximal to the medial epicondyle. Arm lymphedema was defined as a change in the circumference of the ipsilateral upper extremity > 2 cm during the follow-up period. Results Age, tumor size and N stage were not significantly different between the study and control groups. Lymph-node visualization was achieved in 20 participants (83.3%) in the study group. Suspicious stained lymph nodes were surgically removed from four individuals but showed no metastatic involvement. In 20 individuals in the study group, no stained lymph nodes were removed. The incidence of lymphedema in the control group was 16.7%, and the incidence in the study group was 4.2%. Conclusions Axillary reverse mapping is a minimally invasive technique that can be performed during axillary lymph-node dissection, helping to prevent the subsequent development of arm lymphedema. Trial registration #SCURCTN3276, retrospectively registered on 11 April 2017 at Research Ethics Committee at the Faculty of medicine-Suez Canal University.

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Axillary Reverse Mapping in Preventing Lymphedema in Patients With Breast Cancer Undergoing Axillary Lymph Node Dissection

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct03927027 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Axillary Lymph Node Dissection ◽

Lymph Node Dissection ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Node Dissection ◽

Axillary Reverse Mapping ◽

Reverse Mapping

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Axillary Reverse Mapping Using Methylene Blue Subcutaneous Injection Can Identify Arm Lymph Nodes and Vessels, Measuring Arm Size for Lymphedema, Histopathological Examination of Arm Lymph Nodes Included With Axillary Lymph Node Dissection

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct04137744 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Methylene Blue ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Subcutaneous Injection ◽

Histopathological Examination ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Node Dissection ◽

Axillary Reverse Mapping ◽

Reverse Mapping

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Dedicated Axillary MRI-Based Radiomics Analysis for the Prediction of Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer

Cancers ◽

10.3390/cancers13040757 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 757

Author(s):

Sanaz Samiei ◽

Renée W. Y. Granzier ◽

Abdalla Ibrahim ◽

Sergey Primakov ◽

Marc B. I. Lobbes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Node Metastasis ◽

Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis ◽

Axillary Lymph Nodes ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Mr Images ◽

Node Metastasis

Radiomics features may contribute to increased diagnostic performance of MRI in the prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis. The objective of the study was to predict preoperative axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer using clinical models and radiomics models based on T2-weighted (T2W) dedicated axillary MRI features with node-by-node analysis. From August 2012 until October 2014, all women who had undergone dedicated axillary 3.0T T2W MRI, followed by axillary surgery, were retrospectively identified, and available clinical data were collected. All axillary lymph nodes were manually delineated on the T2W MR images, and quantitative radiomics features were extracted from the delineated regions. Data were partitioned patient-wise to train 100 models using different splits for the training and validation cohorts to account for multiple lymph nodes per patient and class imbalance. Features were selected in the training cohorts using recursive feature elimination with repeated 5-fold cross-validation, followed by the development of random forest models. The performance of the models was assessed using the area under the curve (AUC). A total of 75 women (median age, 61 years; interquartile range, 51–68 years) with 511 axillary lymph nodes were included. On final pathology, 36 (7%) of the lymph nodes had metastasis. A total of 105 original radiomics features were extracted from the T2W MR images. Each cohort split resulted in a different number of lymph nodes in the training cohorts and a different set of selected features. Performance of the 100 clinical and radiomics models showed a wide range of AUC values between 0.41–0.74 and 0.48–0.89 in the training cohorts, respectively, and between 0.30–0.98 and 0.37–0.99 in the validation cohorts, respectively. With these results, it was not possible to obtain a final prediction model. Clinical characteristics and dedicated axillary MRI-based radiomics with node-by-node analysis did not contribute to the prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer based on data where variations in acquisition and reconstruction parameters were not addressed.

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Expression of CXCR4 is associated with axillary lymph node status in patients with early breast cancer

The Breast ◽

10.1016/j.breast.2005.08.034 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. 533-539 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Y.-C. Su ◽

M.-T. Wu ◽

C.-J. Huang ◽

M.-F. Hou ◽

S.-F. Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Early Breast Cancer ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Node Status ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Axillary Lymph Node Status ◽

Node Status

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Role of Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Lymph Node Status in Axillary Lymph Node Metastases in Breast Cancer undergoing Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

10.21203/rs.2.17922/v2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yizhen Zhou ◽

Lei Zhang ◽

Zining Jin ◽

Hailan Yu ◽

Siyu Ren ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Lymph Node ◽

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Axillary Lymph Node ◽

Lymph Node Status ◽

Axillary Lymph ◽

Short Axis ◽

Breast Cancer Patients ◽

Axillary Ultrasound

Abstract Background:Axillary ultrasound (AUS) is one of the important bases for evaluating the axillary status of breast cancer patients. And it would be helpful for the reassessment of axillary lymph node status in these patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy(NAC) and guide the selection of their axillary surgical options.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ultrasound,and to find out the factors related to the outcome of ultrasound.Methods:In this retrospective analysis, 172 patients (one bilateral breast cancer) with breast cancer and clinical positive axillary nodes, were enrolled. After NAC, all patients received mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). AUS was used before and after NAC to assess the axilla status. Results:Of the 173 axillae, 137 (79.19%) had pathological metastasis after NAC. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of axillary ultrasound in this cohort were 68.21%, 69.34%, 63.89%, 87.96% and 35.38% respectively. Univariate analysis showed that primary axillary lymph node(ALN) short axis, progesterone receptors, hormone receptors, the tumor status after NAC, tumor reduction rate, ALN short axis after NAC, physical examination of axilla after NAC and pN impacted the results of AUS(P = 0.000 ~ 0.040). Multivariate analysis of the above indicators showed that ALN short axis after NAC and pN associated with AUS results independently. Conclusion:AUS can accurately assess axilla status after NAC in most breast cancer patients. If the short axis of ALN≥10mm and AUS negative, SLNB could be chosen. However, AUS cannot detect residual lymph node disease after NAC in a short axis of the ALN <10mm.

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