The Sentinel Node for Staging Breast Cancer: Current Review

From the first to the second half of this century, the concept of removing lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer has evolved from a therapeutic procedure to a staging procedure. While the concept has evolved, the method of removing the nodes and the attendant morbidity have remained relatively unchanged. Recently, the introduction of targeted resection of a limited set of lymph nodes (sentinel nodes [ SNs ]) most likely to receive drainage from the primary tumor has been introduced. Based on several reports, the success rate of SN resection exceeds 90% and the overall accuracy exceeds 95%. A number of technical issues remainto be resolved in order to optimize identification of all SNs. Importantly, the false-negative rate needs to be fully defined and reduced. Although relatively low, it is important to those patients in whom it occurs. This manuscript reviews available peer-reviewed literature on the SN in breast cancer patients.