Prognostic value of sentinel lymph node involvement in patients with breast cancer.

22213 Background: Sentinel lymph node is a minimally invasive and accurate staging procedure for patients with invasive breast cancer. Histological SLN involvement with cancer cells requires regional lymph node dissection.,To verify if subgroups of patients with sentinel lymph node involvement in which the risk of histological involvement of additional regional lymph nodes is minimal can be identified and to assess the prognostic value of SLN involvement.,Ninety six consecutive patients with invasive breast cancer and tumour size less than two centimeters by mammography, had lymphoscintigraphy with colloidal 99Tc and radioisotope-guided sentinel lymph node biopsy in the University Hospital of Zaragoza from 1999 to 2005. Pathological assessment included serial sections of the sentinel lymph node with inmunohistochemistry for cytokeratins in selected cases. 39 patients had histological involvement.,All patients were females. Median tumour size was 20 mm (range 5-52). Median number of resected sentinel lymph nodes was 2 (range 1-5). With median follow-up of 61 months, 8 relapses have occured (0 in axilla, 2 local relapses, 6 distant metastases). Five relapses occured in 39 patients with SLN involvement (12%) versus 3 in 81 patients without SLN involvement (3%) (p < 0.05).,SLN involvement is a significant prognostic factor for relapse in patients with breast cancer and primary tumor size less than two centimeters. No significant financial relationships to disclose.