Current status of sentinel node surgery in breast cancer

Sentinel node surgery potentially increases the accuracy of identifying lymph nodes that contain breast cancer and decreases morbidity compared to conventional axillary lymph node resection. However, no long-term comparisons of the two modalities have been carried out, and the survival benefit associated with one protocol vs the other remains unknown. Although sentinel node surgery is not expected to increase the cure rate of breast cancer patients, a significant reduction in the incidence of permanent side effects associated with axillary node resection will be a considerable advance. The completion of clinical trials establishing that no meaningful reduction in survival is associated with the decrease in side effects is important.