(ANSA) – ROME, FEBRUARY 14 – Axillary emptying is avoidable for over half of the patients affected by breast cancer who are currently undergoing this type of surgery. The good news comes from a study by the European Institute of Oncology, published in the journal Future Oncology, which involved 30,508 patients between 2000-2017.
The study sought to understand what is the best treatment in cases where it is not possible to biopsy the sentinel lymph node, the first of the lymph nodes in the lymphatic network that branches off from the mammary gland and which, if infiltrated by cancer cells, indicates spread. of the tumor in the armpit. “Some studies have hypothesized that the lack of visualization of the sentinel lymph node was a sign of metastasis and therefore an indication for the surgeon to proceed with the axillary emptying”, explains Giovanni Corso, IEO breast surgeon, researcher at the University of Milan, co-author and promoter of the study The Ieo study instead showed that in 73% of cases the sentinel lymph node not identified by lymphoscintigraphy was visible in the intra-operative phase. Not only. 72.7% of sentinel lymph nodes identified intraoperatively were negative. Therefore, “more than half of the patients in whom the sentinel lymph node is not visible have no axillary metastases and can avoid emptying the armpit”, says Francesca Magnoni, IEO breast surgeon and first signature of the work. (HANDLE).
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