[The sentinel lymph node technique in colorectal cancer using in vivo dye--utility and limits]

The aim of this work is to analyze the importance of sentinel lymph node technique in the treatment of colorectal cancer. There are presented data from literature concerning sentinel lymph node, especially papers about the place of sentinel lymph node method in the treatment of colorectal cancer. This work also shows the experience of Surgical Clinical Department of Coltea Hospital in the use of sentinel lymph node method in colorectal cancer (8 patients with colon cancer and 9 with rectal cancer). There are presented the criteria for inclusion in the study group (26 patients initially proposed for the study) and the exclusion criteria, the diagnostic method using an in vivo dye and the pathology study. The study of the literature and our experience leads to the conclusion that the identification of the sentinel lymph node in colorectal cancer doesn't modify the dissection of the lymphatic area. This procedure may change the adjuvant treatment for colorectal cancer. The discussion is still open concerning the importance of lymphatic micro metastases found by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry methods. More studies are necessary to clarify these problems.