Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and blue dye methods in detection of sentinel lymph nodes following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in initially node positive breast cancer

Feasibility and reliability of sentinel lymph node biopsy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients with positive axillary nodes at initial diagnosis: An up-to-date meta-analysis of 3,578 patients

“…In accordance with the search strategy and study selection criteria, a total of 3578 participants (mean 133 per study, range: 26–637) in 27 trials were identified for inclusion in this meta-analysis ( Fig. 1 a) [ 5 , [9] , [10] , [11] , 16 , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [47] ]. The publication dates of these studies ranged from 2004 to 2020.…”

“…Twenty-two studies were single-center studies [ 5 , 9 , 11 , 25 , 26 , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] ], and five other studies were multi-center studies [ 10 , 16 , 27 , 32 , 47 ]. Seventeen of 27 studies were prospective studies [ 5 , 10 , 16 , 25 , 27 , 29 , 31 , 32 , [34] , [35] , [36] , 40 , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , 47 ]. The others were retrospective studies [ 9 , 11 , 26 , 28 , 30 , 33 , [37] , [38] , [39] , 41 ].…”

“…The others were retrospective studies [ 9 , 11 , 26 , 28 , 30 , 33 , [37] , [38] , [39] , 41 ]. Seven studies were from Korea [ 9 , 31 , [34] , [35] , [36] , 38 , 39 ], five were from the United States [ 11 , 16 , 25 , 28 , 40 ], three were from China [ 33 , 43 , 45 ], three were from Japan [ 32 , 41 , 44 ], two were from India [ 30 , 42 ], two were from Turkey [ 26 , 37 ], and one each was from France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Sweden. Four out of 27 studies did not confirm the axillary status of patients by fine needle aspiration (FNA) or core needle biopsy (CNB) [ 10 , 29 , 30 , 35 ].…”

“…Four studies analyzed the FNRs of single and dual tracers for SLNB following NACT [ 10 , 16 , 27 , 43 ]. The combined estimate of FNR for a single tracer was 17 % (95%CI 13%–23 %), compared with 10 % (95%CI 7%–13 %) with dual mapping ( Fig.…”

“…It is noteworthy that a team from China made the first attempt to combine the use of BD and CEUS [ 43 ]. This study shows that the IR of the combination method (98.5 %) was much better than that of using BD alone (84.6 %).…”