Background: The aim of this study was to investigate whether clinicopathological features affect the success rate of identifying sentinel nodes using a combination method of dye and radioisotope in breast cancer patients.
Methods: Sentinel node biopsy was performed in patients (n = 154) with stage I and II breast cancer using a combination method. The association between the clinicopathological features of breast cancer and the success rate in the identification of sentinel nodes was investigated.
Results: Sentinel nodes were successfully identified in 147 (95.5%) of the 154 patients. There was a concordance between the sentinel-node and axillary-node status in 146 (99.3%) of 147 cases. The false negative rate of the sentinel node biopsy was 2.4% (1/42). The identification rate of sentinel nodes was significantly (P = 0.005) lower in patients > or = 60 years (84.4%) than in those < 60 years (98.4%). The tumor size, histological node status, lympo-vascular invasion, history of previous surgical biopsy, operative procedure, tumor location, and histological type were not related with the identification rate of sentinel nodes. The mean count ratio of all hot nodes was 14.0 (range 2.0-73.6) in patients > or = 60 years and 73.4 (2.0-1700.6) in patients < 60 years, and this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.0001). In addition, the mean number of sentinel nodes was significantly (P = 0.0006) lower in patients > or = 60 years (1.3; range one to four) than in patients < 60 years (2.1; range one to 12).
Conclusions: Patient age affects the identification rate of sentinel nodes using a combination method in breast cancer.