Sentinel lymph node biopsy as a tool for the staging of ductal carcinoma in situ in patients with breast carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast is defined as stage 0 disease, but its diagnosis is subject to sampling errors. This study was conducted to assess the usefulness of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for furnishing indirect evidence of the invasion of tumors diagnosed as DCIS.


METHODS
A total of 201 SLNB procedures performed using a peritumoral tracer, being either dye alone or dye plus 99mTc-labeled colloidal albumin, were reviewed. The cases of DCIS were selected for analysis, and the results were compared with published data.


RESULTS
Among ten cases of DCIS studied by SLNB, only one had micrometastatic nodal involvement, which was revealed by cytokeratin immunostaining, and was limited to the sentinel node. This was a large intermediate-grade micropapillary/cribriform-type DCIS.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that while SLNB may be a valuable tool for the staging of tumors diagnosed as DCIS, it should not be performed in all cases, but probably restricted to large, high-grade, or comedo-type intraductal carcinomas.
Cserni
Gábor
G
Bács-Kiskun County Teaching Hospital, University of Szeged Medical School, Hungary.
D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy