ONCOLOGY, Marcia G M Tavares

Abstracts XIX Brazilian Congress of Nuclear Medicine

7. ONCOLOGY

7.7 - Lymphoscintigraphy And Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy In Breast Cancer.

Marcia G M Tavares, Valdir Di Agostinho, Marcelo T Sapienza, Irene S Endo, Sholomo Lewin, Jose Soares Jr, Marilia M S Marone, Nassif A Galeb Jr, Fatima C Waldvogel, Joao C S Gois, Instituto Brasileiro de Controle do Cancer - São Paulo - SP.

The identification and analyses of the Sentinel Lymph Node (SL) has been investigated to determine the axillary status in patients with breast carcinoma. In this preliminary study, 18 patients without clinic involvement of the axilla, were referred to lymphoscintigraphy with intradermal injection of Tc-99m phitate (2mCi and 0.8ml) around the tumor and compared to the peritumoral injection of blue dye. Acquisition was done with 5 min images of anterior, oblique and lateral views of the chest. Focal accumulations of radioactivity were marked on the skin. Lymphoscintigraphy identified SL in 17 patients and the blue dye in 14. Two patients were found to have axillary nodal metastases. Despite intraoperatively gamma-probe was not available, lymphoscintigraphy evidenced the Tc-99m phitate advantage over the blue dye technique to identify the SL.