title: A mini-review on factors and countermeasures associated with false-negative sentinel lymph node biopsies in breast cancer.
abstract: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is a new surgical technique for local axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) of breast cancer. Large-scale clinical trials have confirmed that undergoing SLNB and ALN dissection (ALND) showed no significant difference for sentinel lymph node (SLN)-negative patients in terms of disease-free survival, overall survival and recurrence-free survival. However, false-negative results are still the main concern of physicians as well as patients who undergo SLNB instead of ALND. The American Society of Breast Surgeons established a task force to suggest acceptable standards for SLNB. In 2000, the task force recommended that the identification rate for SLNB be 85% or higher and the false-negative rate be 5% or lower. This review focuses on clinical factors (tumor volume, multifocal/multi-center cancers, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and skip metastasis), tracer techniques and pathological factors affecting SLNB and explores methods for reducing the false-negative rate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shandong Breast Center of Prevention and Treatment, Shandong Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250117, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shandong Breast Center of Prevention and Treatment, Shandong Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250117, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Shandong Breast Center of Prevention and Treatment, Shandong Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250117, China.
authors.forename: Wenshu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zuo
keywords: Breast cancer; false-negative rate; sentinel lymph node biopsy