![]() In the past, a lab test called immunohistochemistry (IHC) was sometimes used to assess lymph node status. The most common way to assess pathologic lymph node status is a lab test called H&E staining. If you have a positive sentinel lymph node, talk with your health care team about whether you need an axillary dissection. Most people with one or more positive sentinel nodes who have a mastectomy will need an axillary dissection or radiation therapy to the axillary lymph nodes. (Whole breast radiation therapy treats part of the underarm area as well as the breast.) Some women with 1-2 positive sentinel nodes who have a lumpectomy and will have whole breast radiation therapy may not need axillary dissection. The goals of axillary dissection are to check how many lymph nodes have cancer and to reduce the chances of cancer returning in the lymph nodes. More lymph nodes may be removed with a procedure called axillary dissection. Lymph node-positive means at least one sentinel node contains cancer.Surgery to remove more lymph nodes won’t be needed. So, it’s unlikely other lymph nodes have cancer. Lymph node-negative means none of the sentinel nodes contain cancer.Lymph node status shows whether or not breast cancer has spread to the axillary lymph nodes. It just means a pathologist needs to check the nodes for cancer. When the surgeon removes sentinel nodes, it doesn’t mean there’s cancer in the nodes. The surgeon removes the sentinel nodes and sends them to a pathologist. ![]() The radioactive tracer or blue dye usually identifies 1-5 nodes as the sentinel nodes. The surgeon locates the sentinel nodes by looking for the lymph nodes that have absorbed the tracer (using a special device called a gamma probe) or the dye (which turns the lymph nodes blue). ![]() These are also the first lymph nodes where breast cancer is likely to spread. The first axillary lymph nodes to absorb the tracer or dye are called the sentinel nodes. To check if cancer has spread to the axillary lymph nodes, most people will have a procedure called sentinel node biopsy during breast surgery.īefore or during this procedure, a radioactive substance (called a tracer) and/or a blue dye is injected into the breast. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |