Isotope-guided Surgery for Nonpalpable Breast Cancer

[Identification of sentinel lymph node: Comparison between SNOLL and routine isotopic procedure]

INTRODUCTION

Axillary staging remains the most accurate predictive factor for recurrence risk and survival in patients with invasive breast carcinoma. Sentinel Node Occult Lesion Localization (SNOLL) allows with a single intra-lesion injection both localization of impalpable breast lesion and sentinel node biopsy. Our aim was to compare the efficacy of SNOLL and standard radio isotopic method for sentinel node localization by lymphoscintigraphy.

METHODS

This retrospective study enrolled 100 patients treated for breast carcinoma with indication of sentinel node biopsy between may 2017 and January 2019 in breast surgery unit of Montpellier university hospital.

RESULTS

SNOLL and standard radio isotopic method were realized in respectively 65 and 35 patients. Failure rates of sentinel node localization were respectively 34% and 11% by lymphoscintigraphy (P=0.02), 17% and 9% intraoperatively and 11% et 6% using radioisotope combined with colorimetric method.

DISCUSSION

Failure rate of sentinel node localization is higher using SNOLL. This rate is reduced by additional radioisope migration in the time between isotope injection and surgery and by the use of combined method. SNOLL should therefore be combined with colorimetric method. These results must be confirmed in a larger study.

Proof-of-Concept Study of 3-D-Printed Mold-Guided Breast-Conserving Surgery in Breast Cancer Patients

PURPOSE

In this proof-of-concept study, we proposed 3-D-printed mold-guided breast-conserving surgery (BCS) in breast cancer patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Pathologically confirmed and eligible breast cancer patients received magnetic resonance imaging examinations before BCS. The information on the shape, size, and location of the tumor relative to the nipple was extracted and analyzed. We used a 3-D printing technique to produce a mold to guide BCS for breast cancer patients.

RESULTS

We performed 3-D-printed mold-guided BCS in 8 breast cancer patients. All of the patients had negative surgical margins, confirmed by intraoperative and postoperative pathologic examinations.

CONCLUSION

The 3-D-printed mold-guided BCS approach is a feasible way to achieve negative surgical margins. A prospective designed cohort study, with more patients included and a longer follow-up, is needed to further confirm its long-term oncologic safety.

Surgical treatment of nonpalpable primary invasive and in situ breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most-common cancer among women worldwide, and over one-third of all cases diagnosed annually are nonpalpable at diagnosis. The increasingly widespread implementation of breast-screening programmes, combined with the use of advanced imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), will further increase the numbers of patients diagnosed with this disease. The current standard management for nonpalpable breast cancer is localized surgical excision combined with axillary staging, using sentinel-lymph-node biopsy in the clinically and radiologically normal axilla. Wire-guided localization (WGL) during mammography is a method that was developed over 40 years ago to enable lesion localization preoperatively; this technique became the standard of care in the absence of a better alternative. Over the past 20 years, however, other technologies have been developed as alternatives to WGL in order to overcome the technical and outcome-related limitations of this technique. This Review discusses the techniques available for the surgical management of nonpalpable breast cancer; we describe their advantages and disadvantages, and highlight future directions for the development of new technologies.

Magnetic sentinel node and occult lesion localization in breast cancer (MagSNOLL Trial)

BACKGROUND

Non-palpable breast cancers require localization-guided surgery and axillary staging using sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). This study investigated the novel technique of magnetic-guided lesion localization and concurrent SLNB, which avoids the need for wire-guided localization and radioisotopes.

METHODS

An ultrasound-guided intratumoral injection of magnetic tracer (0·5 ml) was performed in a protocol-driven predefined minimum of ten patients with palpable breast cancer to assess the ability of the magnetic tracer safely to localize the tumour at the site of injection and concurrently drain to the lymphatics. Once successful lesion localization had been confirmed (peak magnetometer count retained at the centre of the tumour), the technique was undertaken in a further 20 patients with non-palpable breast cancers awaiting wide local excision and SLNB. All patients underwent SLNB with both the magnetic and standard dual (radioisotope and Patent Blue V dye) techniques.

RESULTS

Thirty-two patients were recruited, of whom 12 (1 with bilateral disease) presented with palpable and 20 with non-palpable breast cancer. Peak magnetometer counts were retained at the tumour centre in all palpable (13) and non-palpable (20) breast cancers. Re-excisions for involved margins were necessary in two patients with non-palpable breast cancers. The sentinel lymph node identification rates were 28 of 33 procedures for the magnetic technique alone, 32 of 33 for the magnetic technique combined with blue dye, and 32 of 33 for the standard dual technique.

CONCLUSION

Magnetic lesion localization is feasible, with intratumoral magnetic tracer injection combined with a periareolar injection of blue dye for subsequent SNLB.