Breast cancer section analysis correlates with sentinel lymph node biopsies: Precision and topographic anatomy

The mainstream treatment of breast cancer is radical mastectomy accompanied with Axillary Lymph Node Dissection (ALND). Lately, more conservative methods accompanied by adjuvant radiotherapy have been gradually replacing radical modalities. The Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB) has been considered such a valuable alternative to surgery conservative approach.

To assess the agreement between SLNB in breast cancer patients and pathology results following ALND and to provide correlation between the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) anatomical topography and biopsy positivity according to SLNBs.

Two hundred female breast cancer patients (31 to 83 years of age) underwent partial or simple mastectomy with or without subsequent ALND. All patients were randomized against selection criteria and underwent SLNB.

In a set of 200 patients, 96.3% presented identical results between SLNB and pathology. 36% of them were confirmed with positive SLN through both approaches. Regarding the SLN topographic anatomical position, 67.3% of samples were located in the front axillary position, 24.5% in the front thoracic position, whereas 6.1% was located in the central axillary position.

The correlation between the SLN topographic anatomical position and the pathology results, revealed that the majority of the SLN accumulates in the front axillary region. A larger patient population will statistically support this association.