After a man or woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, a doctor will often want to determine whether or not the cancer has spread beyond the breast. The first place that gets checked is the network of lymph nodes under the arm. A patient usually has to undergo an axillary lymph node dissection, whereby the lymph nodes are removed from under the armpit. Unfortunately, this procedure sometimes promotes chronic swelling or lymphedema in the arm. About to 10% to 20% of patients who undergo axillary lymph node dissection develop lymphedema.
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy is a new technique that can be used to make the same determination; i.e.: to assess whether or not the breast cancer has spread to an axillary lymph node. But, unlike axillary lymph node dissection, sentinel lymph node biopsy only requires that 1 to 3 of the lymph nodes under the arm be removed for evaluation. If the sentinel lymph nodes do not contain any cancer cells, this result often eliminates the need to remove additional nodes in the axillary (armpit) area for evaluation. The reason why a negative result in the sentinel lymph node biopsy does not lead to further removal of lymph nodes is that the sentinel lymph node is the first area targeted in the armpit area by the breast cancer cells.
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