Sentinel lymph node procedure--a valid selection criterion?

Sentinel node biopsy is currently considered to be an outstanding advance in surgical oncology and represents significant evolution toward minimally invasive breast cancer surgery. Detected by blue dye, radiopharmaceutical or combined techniques, the sentinel lymph node can be selectively used for the detection of micrometastasis through extensive histopathologic analysis. Nevertheless, before considering the sentinel lymph node concept as a new standard of care, the standardization of both detection methods and histopathological protocols is of critical importance. The future of this attractive technique is strictly dependent on the quality of teaching, training and evaluation in prospective controlled multicentric studies.