Intraoperative touch imprint cytology of axillary sentinel nodes for breast cancer: a series of 355 procedures.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to evaluate intraoperative sentinel node touch imprint cytology (IOSNTI) for breast cancer. Three hundred and fifty-five patients with invasive breast cancer (pT1N0, lobular or ductal subtype) were included in our study. IOSNTI consists of touching glass slides to the surfaces of interest after gently pressing the spatially localized specimen, taken according to predetermined conditions, in order to perform a final histological examination consisting of H&E and immunohistochemical staining.


RESULTS
The total sensitivity (Se) of IOSNTI was 36% and 15% of patients with nodal metastasis went undetected during the intraoperative examination. Sensitivity was significantly lower for the oldest patients (aged over 57 years: 25%), small tumors (smaller than 12 mm: 23.3%), lobular subtypes (8.3%), in the absence of vascular emboli (33%) and for detection of micrometastases (10%).


CONCLUSIONS
This simple, fast and relatively inexpensive method could be combined with intraoperative molecular biology methods in populations in which cytology is less efficient and produces negative results.
Lorand
Sophie
S
Department of Gynecology, CHU Anne de Bretagne, 16 Bd de Bulgarie, BP 90 347, F-35 203 Rennes Cedex 2, France.
Lavoué
Vincent
V
Tas
Patrick
P
Foucher
Fabrice
F
Mesbah
Habiba
H
Rouquette
Sophie
S
Bendavid
Cécile
C
Coué
Olivier
O
Porée
Philippe
P
Leveque
Jean
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000379:methods*