Surgical Excision Can Spread Tumor Cells to Sentinel Node
Major Finding: Surgical excision prior to sentinel lymph node dissection leads to a nearly fourfold increase in the risk of having isolated tumor cells in the sentinel node (OR = 3.90, P less than .001).
Data Source: Analysis of 414 breast cancer patients who underwent surgical excision up to 2 months before SLND and 16,960 breast cancer patients who underwent SLND without prior surgical tumor excision. The women were included in Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group database.
Disclosures: The investigators reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.
Dr. Tvedskov pointed out that this difference did not achieve significance because of the small number of patients. There was no significant difference in the likelihood of micrometastases in nonsentinel lymph nodes between the two groups.
"This indicates that isolated tumor cells in patients with earlier surgical excision are not related to nonsentinel node metastases, and are therefore without clinical significance," she said.
The investigators reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.
