BREAST CANCER SURGERY: SENTINEL TECHNIQUE

With the help of the sentinel technique, it is possible to establish whether any tumour cells have broken away and progressed to the filtering station, or lymph nodes located under the armpit. In certain cases, the removal of only one lymph node, the first of the group, or sentinel lymph node (sentinel = "watchdog"), is sufficient to form a diagnosis. The lymph node that is removed is then examined under a microscope using a special procedure, while the operation is still in progress. If fine tissue analysis of this lymph node reveals that it is free of tumour cells, the surgeon may refrain from removing the remaining lymph nodes.