Combined procedure of marking axillary positive node with iodine-125 seed and sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. / Procedimiento combinado de marcaje del ganglio axilar positivo biopsiado con semilla de yodo-125 y biopsia del ganglio centinela en pacientes con cáncer de mama tratadas con quimioterapia neoadyuvante.

OBJECTIVE: To present our initial experience in the combined procedure of intraoperative detection of axillary positive node marked with 125I seed (ML) and sentinel node biopsy (SLN) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), in breast cancer patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Prospective study, January 2017 - March 2019, 16 breast cancer patients T1-3N1. TNM stage: IIA: 3, IIB: 10, IIIA: 3. Histological type ductal invasive: 14. Molecular subtype: luminal A: 3, luminal B: 9, HER2: 3, basal like: 1. The ML was marked 227±36 days before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (n: 10), or 1-6 days before surgery, on previously identified node by ultrasound visibility marker, hydrogel (n: 3) or three dimensional-3D (n: 3). Axillary lymphadenectomy was undertaken in 10 patients. RESULTS: ML and SLN were identified in the surgery in 93.7% (15/16) of the cases, in 33.3% (5/15) ML was not among SLN, and in only one patient (1/5) was there a discrepancy between the result of ML and SLN (macrometastases vs. negative 0/2). Median number of lymph nodes SLN: 2.2±0.9 (range 1-3) and AD: 13.5±5.2 (range 7-23). In all cases, histopathological analysis of ML, 125I seed and/or marker within, correctly predicted axillary status after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In all patients the 125I radioactive seed was recovered. CONCLUSIONS: Placing of 125I seeds is a feasible technique for intraoperative location of axillary positive node combined with SLN. The histopathological result of ML allows the axillary status to be determined after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.