Sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer: Analysis of 30 cases

Aim: Sentinel lymph node biopsy is performed in the treatment of breast cancer, and it has started to replace the axillary lymph node dissection technique. The results are reliable and it has lower morbidity comparing with axillary dissection.Methods: In this study, we analyzed the patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer surgery.Results: Sentinel lymph node involvement was detected in 14 (46.6%) of 30 patients. In the other 16 patients (54.4%), no involvement of the sentinel lymph nodes was detected and six of these patients (37.5%) did not undergo axillary dissection. None of the nine patients (56.2%) without sentinel lymph node involvement had also no axillary involvement. Axillary involvement was detected only in one patient. In our study, 10 patients (62.5%) who had no sentinel lymph node involvement but had axillary dissection showed false negativity in one patient and it was seen that this patient was the first patient to be included in the study. Sentinel lymph node detection rate was 88.2%, accuracy rate was 76.6%, sensitivity rate was 88.2% and false negative rate was 10%.Conclusion: The use of sentinel lymph node biopsy in the surgical treatment of breast cancer is a safe approach