OBJECTIVE To evaluate the performance and feasibility of sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer patients using technetium-99m (99mTc) sulphur colloid and gamma probe. METHODS From May 2000 to March 2001, 70 patients with a tumour less than 5 cm with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes underwent sentinel node biopsy followed by standard axillary dissection. 99mTc sulphur colloid was ...

OBJECTIVE The reference standard for lymph-node staging in prostate cancer is currently an extended pelvic lymph-node dissection (ePLND), which detects most, but not all, regional lymph-node metastases. As an alternative to ePLND, sentinel-node dissection with preoperative isotope injection and imaging has been reported. The objective was to determine whether intraoperative sentinel-node detect...

Sentinels are a conspicuous feature of some cooperative societies and are often assumed to provide benefits in terms of increased predator detection. Similar to other cooperative behaviours, variation in investment in sentinel behaviour should reflect variation in the benefits of such behaviour. However, evidence for this is inconclusive: to date experiments have manipulated the cost of sentine...

BACKGROUND As the incidence of melanoma increases, thin melanomas are being diagnosed at an increasingly frequent rate. Currently available prognostic factors are limited in their ability to reliably discriminate which patients will manifest regional nodal metastasis and would be identified early through sentinel node biopsy. METHODS We summarized our experience with sentinel node biopsy for ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Sentinel lymph node mapping has become a cornerstone of oncologic surgery because it is a proven method for identifying nodal disease in melanoma and breast cancer. In addition, it can ameliorate the surgical morbidity secondary to lymphadenectomy. However, experience with sentinel lymph node mapping for carcinoma of the colon and other visceral malignancies is limited. The purp...

BACKGROUND Sentinel surveillance for HIV among women attending antenatal clinics using unlinked anonymous testing is a cornerstone of HIV surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa. Increased use of routine antenatal HIV testing allows consideration of using these programmatic data rather than sentinel surveillance data for HIV surveillance. METHODS To gauge Kenya's readiness to discontinue sentinel ...

OBJECTIVE Relatively minor abusive injuries can precede severe physical abuse in infants. Our objective was to determine how often abused infants have a previous history of "sentinel" injuries, compared with infants who were not abused. METHODS Case-control, retrospective study of 401, <12-month-old infants evaluated for abuse in a hospital-based setting and found to have definite, intermedia...

ii Faculty The objective of this course is to teach the indications, techniques, and theoretical concepts of lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy for breast cancer and melanoma. After participating in this course, surgeons should be able to begin to perform and evaluate lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy with blue dye, radio-isotope, or a combination of both. The histopathologic m...

INTRODUCTION Sentinel node mapping has been used for laryngeal carcinoma in several studies, with excellent results thus far. In the current study, we report our preliminary results on sentinel node mapping in laryngeal carcinoma using intra-operative peri-tumoral injection of a radiotracer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients with biopsy-proven squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx were included ...

BACKGROUND Sentinel node navigation surgery is gaining popularity in oral cancer. We assessed application of sentinel lymph node navigation surgery to pharyngeal and laryngeal cancers by evaluating the combination of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and indocyanine green fluorescence in animal models. METHODS This was a prospective, nonrandomized, experimental study in rabbit and swine anima...