Axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients: sonographic evaluation.
Axillary staging of patients with early-stage breast cancer is essential in the treatment planning. Currently such staging is intraoperatively performed, but there is a tendency to seek a preoperative and less invasive technique to detect lymph node metastasis. Ultrasonography is widely utilized for this purpose, many times in association with fine-needle aspiration biopsy or core needle biopsy. However, the sonographic criteria for determining malignancy in axillary lymph nodes do not present significant predictive values, producing discrepant results in studies evaluating the sensitivity and specificity of this method. The present study was aimed at reviewing the literature approaching the utilization of ultrasonography in the axillary staging as well as the main morphological features of metastatic lymph nodes.
Specialist, MD, Mastologist at Hospital do Servidor Público Estadual "Francisco Morato de Oliveira" (HSPE), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Denise Joffily Pereira da Costa
DJ
Pinheiro
PhD, Mastologist, Escola Paulista de Medicina - Universidade Federal de São Paulo (EPM-Unifesp), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Simone
S
Elias
Private Docent, Head of Department of Gynecology and of Mastology Division at Escola Paulista de Medicina - Universidade Federal de São Paulo (EPM-Unifesp), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Afonso Celso Pinto
AC
Nazário
Axillary lymph nodes; Axillary ultrasonography; Breast cancer; Morphological features