Pathological examination with two-millimetre serial sectioning for sentinel lymph node biopsies in breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To compare enhanced pathology with serial sectioning and the transcription-reverse transcription concerted reaction (TRC) for detecting sentinel node (SN) metastasis in breast cancer cases.


METHODS
In total, 115 SN samples from 32 breast cancer cases were investigated by pathological examination with 2.0-mm serial sectioning and by quantitative analysis of carcinoembryonic antigen messenger RNA with the TRC.


RESULTS
The results were concordant in 98.3% of these cases. Two histologically metastatic nodes tested negative by TRC, whereas none tested positive by TRC alone.


CONCLUSIONS
Pathological examination with 2-mm sectioning showed superior performance to TRC under the study conditions.
Ishikawa
T
T
Department of General Surgery, Yokohama City University Medical Center, Yokohama, Japan. tishik@urahp.yokohama-cu.ac.jp
Sasaki
T
T
Miyajima
E
E
Shimizu
D
D
Nozawa
A
A
Kawachi
K
K
Takase
A
A
Miyazaki
N
N
Tomioka
R
R
Kikuchi
M
M
Amari
Y
Y
Fukuno
Y
Y
Takeda
H
H
Hayashi
T
T
Onaka
S
S
Ichikawa
Y
Y
Shimada
H
H
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000379:methods*
D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen