title: Molecular assessment of sentinel lymph node in breast cancer management.
abstract: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is becoming accepted as standard of care for axillary staging in breast cancer. World Health Organization (WHO) re-classification of axillary metastases into macrometastases, micrometastases and individual tumour cells has highlighted the issues of sampling and further histological examination of the initially negative SLNB. Molecular detection of metastatic breast cancer cells in lymph nodes is now available as a commercial kit for intraoperative use and can resolve the sampling issue. Semiquantitative assessment of axillary lymph node tumour burden can now be made using two separate technologies (histology and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction). The clinical implications of low metastatic axillary lymph node tumour burden are not clear, and future trials need to include molecular data. The consequences of the availability of molecular assessment are reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. douglas-jones@cf.ac.uk
authors.forename: Anthony G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Douglas-Jones
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Woods
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D053539:Keratin-19 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D060785:Mammaglobin A; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000379:methods*; D014598:Uteroglobin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D053539:Keratin-19; D060785:Mammaglobin A; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C556448:SCGB2A2 protein, human; D014598:Uteroglobin