Linfonodos axilares em pacientes com câncer de mama: avaliação ultrassonográfica

Abstract

Axillary staging of patients with early-stage breast cancer is essential in the treatment planning. Currently such staging is intraoperatively performed, but there is a tendency to seek a preoperative and less invasive technique to detect lymph node metastasis. Ultrasonography is widely utilized for this purpose, many times in association with fine-needle aspiration biopsy or core needle biopsy. However, the sonographic criteria for determining malignancy in axillary lymph nodes do not present significant predictive values, producing discrepant results in studies evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of this method. The present study was aimed at reviewing the literature approaching the utilization of ultrasonography in the axillary staging as well as the main morphological features of metastatic lymph nodes.

Accurate evaluation of axillary sentinel lymph node metastasis using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with Sonazoid in breast cancer: a preliminary clinical trial

“…Peripheral vascularization is more frequently found in metastatic lymph nodes, while the central pattern is more frequently found in the absence of malignancy. The importance of the utilization of Doppler ultrasonography as a diagnostic criteria is observed as it is associated with other morphological characteristics and not as an isolated criteria (Pinheiro et al 2014 ). Using color Doppler US increases the information about lymph node, but that is limited to the macrovessel vascularity.…”

Axillary ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration in preoperative staging of axillary lymph nodes in patients with invasive breast cancer

“…The Brazilian radiological literature has recently demonstrated interest on the sonographic evaluation of axillary lymph nodes ( 18 ) , mainly whether US-FNA is an effective method to predict lymph node compromising in breast cancer patients ( 19 ) . Although the utilization of axillary US in association with fine needle aspiration is capable of avoiding a great number SLNB, there is no consensus about when it should be indicated.…”

Breast cancer with splenic metastasis in a male patient

“…The most common complaint at diagnosis is of a palpable nodule, typically > 2.0 cm (3) . Mammography and ultrasound are used in making the diagnosis, following the criteria for malignancy in female breast cancer (2,4-6) . The most common histological subtype is invasive ductal carcinoma, which often tests positive for estrogen and progesterone (2) .…”