The long-term safety of sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue in breast cancer patients / 中华普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the long-term safety of sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue in breast cancer patients.Methods 198 breast cancer patients with clinical negative axillary lymph node received sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue.Patients were followed up and regional lymph node recurrence,disease free survival(DFS) and overall survival(OS) were analyzed.Results After a median follow-up of 70 months,2 patients had ipsilateral lymph node recurrence with a regional lymph node recurrence rate of 1％ (2/198).14 patient had recurrence or metastasis and 6 patients died of distant metastasis.The estimated 6 years DFS was 94.4％ and OS was 96.5％.The incidence of arm lymphoedema within patients who received axillary lymph node dissection was 4.5％ and it was 2.5％ in patients who received sentinel lymph node biopsy.Conclusions The sentinel lymph node biopsy mapped by combination of indocyanine green and methylene blue was safe and reliable method for further staging axillary lymph node stastus.