Objectives: Our purpose was to assess development of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in two Burgundy districts during the year 2005.
Methods: All women undergoing breast surgery as primary care between 1 January 2005 and 1 January 2006 were eligible for inclusion. Eleven surgeons from five different breast-treatment centres took part in this prospective multicentric study. As our objective was to evaluate practices, patients were not randomized and surgeons were free to choose treatment patterns.
Results: The 528 enrolled cases account for 90% of all new breast cancers in 2005 in Cote d'Or and Saône et Loire. Half of these patients (286) fulfilled requirements for SLNB. The others (242) had primary full axillary clearance (AC). Four of our five centres offer double-detection of sentinel lymph nodes as well as intraoperative pathology examination. Most tumours were invasive ductal carcinomas, with an average size of 12 mm in the SLNB group (T1C) and 22 mm in the AC group (T2). Two or three lymph nodes were removed during each SLNB procedure. Whereas most SLNB studies report around 25% positive nodes, we barely recorded 18.5% (53 of our 256 patients). Moreover, 2/3 of these node-positive patients had optimal care since additional axillary clearance was done right away.
Conclusion: Sentinel lymph node biopsy has become routine practice in our Burgundy area. It is mainly dedicated to early stage breast cancer with limited metastatic risk. Our surgeons follow the most recent guidelines and indications are the same regardless of treatment centre.