Sentinel lymph nodes in cancer of the oral cavity -- isolated tumour cells.
BACKGROUND
Sentinel lymph node biopsy, step sectioning and immunohistochemistry have changed detection of tumour deposits. Isolated tumour cells (ITC) are detected more frequently than earlier because of a changed level of detection.


METHODS
A total of 108 sentinel lymph nodes from 30 patients with T1/T2 cN0 oral cancer were re-classified histologically to find possible ITC and to describe technical pitfalls.


RESULTS
Primarily we found metastatic spread in 12 of 108 sentinel lymph nodes: five macrometastasis and seven micrometastasis. After re-classification, we found seven lymph nodes with macrometastasis, five with micrometastasis and two with ITC.


CONCLUSIONS
The ITC are probably precursors of micrometastasis waiting to grow and should be treated as such. Benign inclusions and dendritic cells did not cause problems, but can mimic ITC.
Thomsen
Jørn Bo
JB
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Odense University Hospital, Odense C, Denmark. jbth@dadlnet.dk
Sørensen
Jens Ahm
JA
Krogdahl
Annelise
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000556:secondary*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy