Efficacy of sentinel lymph node biopsy in male breast cancer.
BACKGROUND
Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is rapidly becoming the standard of care in the treatment of women with early stage breast cancer. Male breast cancer although relatively rare, has typically been treated with mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). Men who develop breast carcinoma have the same risk as their female counterparts of developing the morbidities associated with axillary dissection. SLNB has been championed as a procedure aimed at preventing those morbidities. We recently have evaluated the role of SLNB in the treatment of men with early stage breast cancer.


METHODS
Among the 18 men treated at the University of Michigan Medical Center for breast cancer from May 1998 to November 2002, 6 were treated with SLNB.


RESULTS
The mean tumor size was 1.6 cm. The mean patient age was 59.8 years. All of the patients had one or more sentinel lymph nodes identified. Two of the six did not have confirmatory axillary dissection. Three of the six had positive sentinel lymph nodes (50%). Only one of the three patients with a positive sentinel node had more nodes positive. One of the six patients had a positive node on frozen section and underwent immediate complete axillary dissection. This patient had no additional positive nodes. No patients in our series had immunohistochemical studies of the lymph nodes.


CONCLUSIONS
Men with early stage breast carcinoma may be offered the management option of SLNB since in the hands of experienced surgeons it has a success rate apparently equal to that in their female counterparts.
Cimmino
Vincent M
VM
Division of Surgical Oncology, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-0932, USA. vmc@umich.edu
Degnim
Amy C
AC
Sabel
Michael S
MS
Diehl
Kathleen M
KM
Newman
Lisa A
LA
Chang
Alfred E
AE
D001365:Axilla; D018567:Breast Neoplasms, Male / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy
D011960:Receptors, Estrogen