Prediction of sentinel lymph node biopsy for axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer

[Objective]To study significance of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy (SLNB) in the prediction of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer. [Methods] Between Nov 2000 and Oct 2003, sentinel lymph nodes of 179 patients with T1～3N0M0 breast cancer injected by methylenc blue staining were excised for biopsy, patients then received operations for breast cancer including axillary dissection. [Results]SLN was identified in 171 patients, the identification rate was 95.5 %(171/179). The total number of SLN identified was one in 70 cases (40.9%), 2 in 56 cases (32.7%), and≥3 in 45 cases (26.3%). The accuracy rate, sensitivity and specificity were 88.9%, 87.7%, 89.8%, the false negative rate was 12.3% (9/73). The tumor size and positive numbers of axillary lymph node were relation factor of false negative.[Conclusion]The SLN status can generally be a representation of axillary metastasis, SLNB is useful to predict the status of axillary lymph node of breast cancer patients.