[Lani]

isolated tumor cells are found in SLNs and are considered "less than micromets"

when they are found in a her2+ patient they are not stained for her2 from what I have gathered. (technical problem, it seems)

Nevertheless, there is a technique to her2 stain isolated tumor cells when in bone marrow.

Until this is routinely done on her2 + patients lymph node micromets,"less than micromets" etc I don't think we will know the answer.

Also the type of biopsy done needs to be addressed--Needle biopsy and core biopsy and excisional biopsy after passing radioopaque wires are obviously more likely to dislodge tumor cells than excisional biopsies without wire passage when margins were clear from the get-go.

This is not a "sexy" area of research in breast cancer, so it may take a while to come up with the answers...

So for right now despite lots written and lots of talks (not all published) from meetings, we only know that we can detect even a few cells in a lymph node, but do not know if they are tumor cells and what their presence portends...