The rare but significant reports of aberrant lymph node drainage outside of the ipsilateral axilla in patients with breast cancer necessitate a review of the staging and treatment strategies for these patients. Current staging modalities continue to describe this phenomenon as a stage IV cancer, which could have profound implications for clinical management. We report a case of a patient with recurrent right breast invasive ductal carcinoma whose preoperative lymphoscintigraphy revealed sentinel lymph node drainage to the contralateral axilla. This discovery subsequently altered surgical planning and her ultimate stage.
Keywords: SPECT; breast cancer; breast cancer staging; lymph node; sentinel node mapping.
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