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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping and Biopsy for Endometrial Cancer at Early Stage with Laparoscopy
Published on: August 19, 2021
Mediastinal intraoperative radioisotope sentinel lymph node mapping in non-small-cell lung cancer
Cansel Atinkaya1, N Ozlem Küçük, Hakan Koparal
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
Background:
Lymph node metastases are significant prognostic factors in localized non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Nodal micrometastases may not be detected using current histological methods.
Aim:
To determine the accuracy and role of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) in patients with NSCLC.
Methods:
Intraoperative technetium-99m (Tc) sulphur colloid SLN mapping was performed in patients with NSCLC. Serial section histology and immunohistochemistry were used to validate the SLNs and to identify the presence of micrometastatic disease. The study was carried out on 28 consecutive patients (male/female, 25/3; mean age, 57.05+/-7.1 years) with resectable NSCLC. During thoracotomy, 0.25 mCi of Tc sulphur colloid was injected into four quadrants peritumorally. Radioactivity was counted intraoperatively, a mean of 45 min (range, 30-60 min) after injection. SLN was defined as the node with the highest count rate using a hand-held gamma probe counter. Resection with mediastinal node dissection was performed and the findings were correlated with histological examination.
Results:
SLNs were identified in 26 of 28 patients (92.8%) with a total number of 32 SLNs. Seven of 32 (21.8%) of these SLNs were positive for metastatic involvement after histological and immunohistochemical examination. In two patients (7.1%), SLNs could not be found.
Conclusions:
These results demonstrate the feasibility of this procedure in identifying the first site of potential nodal metastasis of NSCLC. This method may improve the precision of pathological staging.
