Kelly K. Hunt, MD

While breast-conserving surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become more accepted over time, methods of management of the axillary lymph nodes have remained matters of controversy.

Validation of sentinel lymph node (SLN) dissection (SLND) as an alternative to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) has been a significant advance in the surgical management of breast cancer.

A recent prospective trial showed sentinel lymph node surgery has a clinically significant high false negative rate in breast cancer patients with node-positive disease receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In this interview we discuss surgical techniques that detect breast cancer in lymph nodes.

Breast cancer has long been described as a very heterogeneous disease, and clinicians have struggled with identifying the appropriate treatment program for an individual patient on the basis of multiple variables, including histology, nuclear grade, tumor size, nodal status, hormone receptor status, and a variety of prognostic factors.

Developed initially for the treatment of malignant melanoma, lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy have recently been introduced into the treatment of early breast cancer. In breast cancer patients, harvested