Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients. A preoperative staging procedure

Accuracy of fine-needle aspiration cytology of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients

“…Currently, in a patient known to have at least 1 positive axillary lymph node preoperatively, a full axillary lymph node dissection would be performed directly, without prior sentinel lymph node dissection. 7,11 Avoiding an unnecessary sentinel lymph node procedure is beneficial because it is both time-consuming and cost-consuming. 7 Indeed, the sentinel lymph node dissection procedure, which aims at identifying the status of the first (sentinel) lymph node draining the primary tumor within the axilla, 7 is complex and lengthy because it requires a multidisciplinary team approach for the preoperative injection and detection of a blue dye and of a radiocolloid agent.…”

“…7,11 Avoiding an unnecessary sentinel lymph node procedure is beneficial because it is both time-consuming and cost-consuming. 7 Indeed, the sentinel lymph node dissection procedure, which aims at identifying the status of the first (sentinel) lymph node draining the primary tumor within the axilla, 7 is complex and lengthy because it requires a multidisciplinary team approach for the preoperative injection and detection of a blue dye and of a radiocolloid agent. Preoperative confirmation of metastatic breast carcinoma in an axillary lymph node (either by FNA cytology or core needle biopsy) constitutes an absolute contraindication to sentinel lymph node dissection.…”

“…9 To improve the accuracy of the preoperative assessment of axillary lymph nodes, others have used FNA and found it to be simple, moderately accurate, and minimally invasive, and a good triage tool for the management of patients. 1,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]15,19 Indeed, it has been shown that combining axillary ultrasonography with FNA cytology of abnormal lymph nodes can significantly reduce the number of unnecessary sentinel lymph node procedures performed by 8% to 40%, with a concomitant reduction in healthcare costs of up to 20%. [7][8][9][10]15,19 The data from the current study confirm that FNA cytology is a useful procedure with which to detect axillary lymph node metastases from breast carcinoma.…”

“…Different methods are used to detect metastases in axillary lymph nodes preoperatively. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Although some studies have used ultrasonographic imaging techniques alone, [2][3][4][5][6]12,17,18 others have used fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology with or without ultrasound guidance to improve the detection of metastases. 1,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]15,19 FNA cytology of axillary lymph nodes is a simple, minimally invasive technique that can be utilized as a tool with which to select patients for sentinel versus full lymph node dissection procedures in We thank Dr. R. P. Michel for editorial assistance with the article.…”

Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasonograph Guided Fine-needle Aspiration Cytologic in Staging of Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer Patients: a Meta-analysis

“…Consequently, 44 articles included information relating FNAC and breast cancer diagnosis. But only 21 of 44 articles satisfied the requirements of the meta-analysis fully (Bonnema et al, 1997;Bedrosian et al, 2003;Deurloo et al, 2003;Kuenen-Boumeester et al, 2003;Sapino et al, 2003;Duchesne et al, 2005;Podkrajsek et al, 2005;Popli et al, 2006;van Rijk et al, 2006;Altomare et al, 2007;Ciatto et al, 2007;Alkuwari et al, 2008;Tahir et al, 2008;Baruah et al, 2010;Jung et al, 2010;Luparia et al, 2010;Carroll et al, 2011;Devaraj et al, 2011;Hayes et al, 2011;Schiettecatte et al, 2011), addressing the value of FNAC in staging of axillary lymph node in breast cancer patients. The detailed procedure was seen in Figure 1.…”