title: Frozen section diagnosis for axillary sentinel lymph nodes: the first six years.
abstract: Intraoperative frozen section of axillary lymph nodes for the detection of metastatic breast cancer has been controversial because of the labor-intensive techniques necessary to obtain a highly sensitive test, and because of the uncertain significance of frequently detected submicrometastatic carcinoma. In total, 874 consecutive axillary sentinel lymph node cases examined by intraoperative frozen section over a 6-year period were reviewed retrospectively. Frozen section had a sensitivity of 60% and was 100% specific, but when cases with submicrometastatic tumor cells were considered negative, the sensitivity rose to 83%. Rare cases were called 'atypical' on frozen section; almost all of these cases were negative for carcinoma on permanent sections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Christiana Care Health Services, Newark, DE 19718-6001, USA. mmitchell@christianacare.org
authors.forename: Mark L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D005629:Frozen Sections / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding / Q000592:standards; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy
chemical_list: D007633:Keratins