%0 Journal Article
%T Role of axillary sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with pure ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast
%A Giorgio Zavagno
%A Paolo Carcoforo
%A Renato Marconato
%A Zeno Franchini
%A Giuliano Scalco
%A Paolo Burelli
%A Paolo Pietrarota
%A Mario Lise
%A Roberto Mencarelli
%A Giovanni Capitanio
%A Andrea Ballarin
%A Maria Pierobon
%A Giorgia Marconato
%A Donato Nitti
%J BMC Cancer
%D 2005
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2407-5-28
%X The aim of the present study was therefore to assess the incidence of SLN metastases in a series of patients with a diagnosis of pure DCIS.A retrospective evaluation was made of a series of 102 patients who underwent SLN biopsy, and had a final histologic diagnosis of pure DCIS. Patients with microinvasion were excluded from the analysis. The patients were operated on in five Institutions between 1999 and 2004.Subdermal or subareolar injection of 30¨C50 MBq of 99 m-Tc colloidal albumin was used for SLN identification. All sentinel nodes were evaluated with serial sectioning, haematoxylin and eosin staining, and immunohistochemical analysis for cytocheratin.Only one patient (0.98%) was SLN positive. The primary tumour was a small micropapillary intermediate-grade DCIS and the SLN harboured a micrometastasis. At pathologic revision of the specimen, no detectable focus of microinvasion was found.Our findings indicate that SLN metastases in pure DCIS are a very rare occurrence. SLN biopsy should not therefore be routinely performed in patients who undergo resection for DCIS. SLN mapping can be performed, as a second operation, in cases in which an invasive component is identified in the specimen. Only DCIS patients who require a mastectomy should have SLN biopsy performed at the time of breast operation, since in these cases subsequent node mapping is not feasible.Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is defined as the proliferation of malignant epithelial cells in the mammary ductal system, with no evidence of invasion of the basement membrane. By definition, the disease is localized to the breast, with no spread to regional nodes or distant sites.In the pre-mammography era, DCIS was rarely diagnosed, accounting for only 1 to 2% of all breast cancers. The increasing use of screening mammography in recent years has resulted in a dramatic increase in the diagnosis of DCIS, which now accounts for roughly 20% of all mammographically detected cancers [1].Axillary treatment in pati
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/5/28