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Absence of ectopic epithelial inclusions in 3,904 axillary lymph nodes examined in sentinel technique

Iken, Sonja ; Schmidt, Marcus ; Braun, Claudia ; Valentino, Antonietta ; Lehr, Hans-Anton ; Schaefer, Stephan

In: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 2012, vol. 132, no. 2, p. 621-624

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    Titre
    • Absence of ectopic epithelial inclusions in 3,904 axillary lymph nodes examined in sentinel technique
    Auteur
    • Iken, Sonja. Department of Pathology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Medical School, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany
    • Schmidt, Marcus. Department of Gynecology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Medical School, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany
    • Braun, Claudia. Department of Pathology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Medical School, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany
    • Valentino, Antonietta. Department of Pathology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Medical School, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany
    • Lehr, Hans-Anton. Department of Pathology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Medical School, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany
    • Schaefer, Stephan. Department of Pathology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Medical School, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 2012, vol. 132, no. 2, p. 621-624. Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:318174
    Summary
    Intraoperative examination of sentinel axillary lymph nodes can be done by imprint cytology, frozen section, or, most recently, by PCR-based amplification of a cytokeratin signal. Using this technique, benign epithelial inclusions, representing mammary tissue displaced along the milk line, will likely generate a positive PCR signal and lead to a false-positive diagnosis of metastatic disease. To better appreciate the incidence of ectopic epithelial inclusions in axillary lymph nodes, we have performed an autopsy study, examining on 100μm step sections3,904 lymph nodes obtained from 160 axillary dissections in 80 patients. The median number of lymph nodes per axilla was 23 (15, 6, and 1 in levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively). A total of 30,450 hematoxylin-eosin stained slides were examined, as well as 8,825 slides immunostained with pan-cytokeratin antibodies. Despite this meticulous work-up, not a single epithelial inclusion was found in this study, suggesting that the incidence of such inclusions is much lower than the assumed 5% reported in the literature