HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - for those w micrometastasis on sentinel lymph node biopsy

Lani · 09-28-2007, 05:49 PM

some breast cancer patients' sentinel nodes are positive only with a very tiny amount of malignant cells, which are only seen on microscopic examination

In previous years, studies classified these patients as lymph node negative.

This study looked at the fate of these women, and adjusting for other factors
(but not specifically her2 positivity), they found they fared worse than those with negative lymph nodes but better than those with a sentinel lymph node where the amount of malignant cells could easily be seen without a microscope.

There are also "nanometastases"--collections of a few cells seen with certain dyes and under the microscope. This article does not address those.

THe patients seemed to have 35% HIGHER RISK THAN THOSE WHO WERE LYMPH NODE NEGATIVE AND 28% better prognosis than those with more extensive malignant cells in their positive sentinel node.

09-28-2007, 05:49 PM	#3
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,780	translation... some breast cancer patients' sentinel nodes are positive only with a very tiny amount of malignant cells, which are only seen on microscopic examination In previous years, studies classified these patients as lymph node negative. This study looked at the fate of these women, and adjusting for other factors (but not specifically her2 positivity), they found they fared worse than those with negative lymph nodes but better than those with a sentinel lymph node where the amount of malignant cells could easily be seen without a microscope. There are also "nanometastases"--collections of a few cells seen with certain dyes and under the microscope. This article does not address those. THe patients seemed to have 35% HIGHER RISK THAN THOSE WHO WERE LYMPH NODE NEGATIVE AND 28% better prognosis than those with more extensive malignant cells in their positive sentinel node.