Objective: To study the diagnostic value of fluorescent lymphography for sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer.
Material and methods: The cohort study, conducted at 4 specilized centers between June 2019 and March 2024, included 333 patients with cT1-4 N0-1M0 breast cancer. 50 patients received neoadjuvant systemic therapy, 14 of them had single metastases, confirmed by cytological or histological methods, which clinically completely regressed after systemic treatment. Immediately before the operation, 1 ml (5mg) of indocyanine green was injected subareolarly or subcutaneously into the tumor projection. Fluorescence imaging was performed using various devices for ICG navigation in the open surgical field – MARS, IC-Flow, Stryker SPY-PHI, IC-GOR. In 78 patients after sentinel lymph node biopsy standard axillary lymphadenectomy was performed.
Results: Detection level was 99.1%. The average number of sentinel lymph nodes was 3.4. Metastatic lesions of sentinel lymph nodes were detected in 54 of 330 patients (16.4%). The average number of metastatic lymph nodes was 1.6; in 90.7% of cases metastases to 1-2 lymph nodes were registered. Intraoperative morphological examination revealed metastases only in 59% of cases. No systemic adverse events were recorded. The false-negative error rate in the group of patients who underwent axillary lymphadenectomy was 6.6%. The overall accuracy of fluorescent lymphography for sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer was 94%.
Conclusion: The SLNB technique using fluorescence lymphography is safe and highly accurate as a stand-alone method.
