Sentinel lymph node biopsy with intraoperative touch imprint cytology (TIC) in breast cancer: experience of a mild-volume center.

Abstract

Although considered the gold standard in treatment of EBC, sentinel node biopsy still remains a debated issue. What to do in case of positive sentinel node and the need of intraoperative histological examination are the most topics under discussion. In this study we have retrospectively evaluate our case series of 359 sentinel node biopsy in the managing of breast cancer from January 2011 to December 2018, focusing on the TIC technique for performing intraoperative examination. It results in 12,8% "FALSE NEGATIVE" rate, in which only 4,2% in macrometastases, with an overall sensitivity of 68,4% (macrometastases: 86%; micrometastases: 11%), overall specificity of 98,7% and an overall accuracy of 89,7%. The intraoperative examination of SLN allows to reduce delayed surgery procedures and greater therapeutic safety in case of mastectomy. The TIC method can be considered valid, simple and rapid in identifying macrometastases, also allowing to avoid under-staging. The low sensitivity for micrometastases is not a limit, considering that recent evidence has drastically reduced the indications for ALND in these cases. Further ongoing trials and the possible validation of NOMOGRAMMS and SCORE are necessary to identify low risk cases in which to definitively omit the ALND and/or even the SLNB itself.