^99mTc-dextran lymphoscintigraphy can detect sentinel lymph node in breast cancer patients

The aim of this study was to retrospectively determine the accuracy and feasibility of using ^99mTc-dextran (DX) lymphoscintigraphy for the localization of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) in breast cancer patients. The relevant factors affecting lymphoscintigraphy were also investigated. In this study, 235 breast cancer patients underwent ^99mTc-DX lymphoscintigraphic imaging and examination by a γ-probe method in combination with blue dye staining to detect SLNs. The detection results were considered in combination with rapid frozen pathology results to determine whether SLN metastasis was positive or negative. SLNs were identified in 191 patients by γ-probe detection among the 202 patients that tested positive by lymphoscintigraphic imaging, a coincidence rate of 94.6%. This suggested that lymph node metastasis had occurred and could be detected using lymphoscintigraphy. The axillary status of the breast cancer patients was also predicted using lymphoscintigraphy and the false-negative rate, sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value were 13.3% (4/30), 90.7% (39/43), 23.4% (45/192) and 13.5% (21/155), respectively. The age of the patient, menstrual status, tumor location, tumor size, pathological type, preoperative biopsy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy were unrelated to the success of lymphoscintigraphy (P>0.05). ^99mTc-DX lymphoscintigraphy is able to exactly determine the location of SLN in breast cancer patients, and can be used for guiding γ-probe methods and sentinel lymph node biopsy.