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Updated: Jun 24, 2026
The Application of 1% Methylene Blue Dye As a Single Technique in Breast Cancer Sentinel Node Biopsy
Published on: June 1, 2019
[Comparative study of sentinel node biopsy in patients with multifocal breast carcinoma versus in those with unifocal
1Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Hospital Universitario Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Barcelona, España. msola.germanstrias@gencat.net
Objective:
To evaluate the results for sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in patients with multifocal breast cancer (MBC) in comparison to in those with unifocal breast cancer (UBC).
Patients And Methods:
A total of 1535 prospective SNB (174 on patients with MBC) were performed at 9 hospitals. In most patients, Tc-99m albumin colloids were injected intraparenchymally into each tumoral focus for SNB.
Results:
The overall identification rate was 93.8%; no differences between groups were observed (94.8% in MBC vs 93.4% in UBC). The mean number of sentinel nodes detected was 1.46, being higher in the MBC group than in the UBC group (1.58 vs 1.45; p=0.036). Extra-axillary sentinel nodes were found in 19.6%; extra-axillary sentinel nodes were more common in the MBC group (23.4% vs 18.9%, ns) and in the internal mammary chain and in level III axillary lymph nodes. The incidence of sentinel node metastasis was 27.3% (29.1% MBC vs 26.7% UBC, ns), and the mean number of positive sentinel nodes was 0.42 in the MBC group vs 0.32 in the UBC group (p=ns). Axillary dissection identified the same rate of positive additional nodes (29.7%) in both groups.
Conclusions:
The diagnostic yield of SNB seems similar in MBC and UBC. In MBC, there appears to be a specific pattern of lymphatic drainage, with a higher number of sentinel nodes detected and probably a higher number of extra-axillary sentinel nodes.
