EANM Sentinel Node in Breast Cancer Procedural Guidelines
Procedure guidelines for scintigraphic detection of sentinel node in breast cancer are presented.
Sentinel lymph node is the first regional lymph node that drains the lymph from the primary tumour. It is potentially the first node to receive the seeding of lymph-borne metastatic cells. Lymphoscintigraphy (LS) allows the surgeon to easily identify and biopsy the sentinel lymph node. This method identifies the sentinel node but cannot determine if it is involved with cancer. At present, this technique guides the surgeon to the sentinel node, and sentinel node biopsy has been reported as a safe and accurate method of screening axillary nodes. A variety of colloids have been used in this technique. The radiopharmaceuticals commonly employed for LS are 99mTc-sulphur colloid (particle size: 15–5,000 nm), 99mTc-nanocolloid (5–100 nm), 99mTc-antimony trisulphide (3–30 nm).