The axillary study with ultrasound and cytological puncture with fine needle in invasive breast cancer.

Introduction

Axillary study with ultrasound and cytological puncture with fine needle aspirate (FNA) in patients with invasive breast cancer is a diagnostic method included in protocols.

Method

Fifty-four patients with invasive breast cancer treated in 2004 underwent axillary ultrasound and cytological puncture with fine needle of suspicious nodes before surgery. Suspicious nodes were those with at least one of the following signs: long-to-short axis ratio less than 1.5, absence of hilius and cortical disruption. If the results were compatible with metastasis then we performed axillary lymphadenectomy; if it was found to be benign then we conducted sentinel node study.

Results

In 10 patients cytological puncture with fine needle was positive. When we conducted axillary lymphadenectomy, two patients (20%) were found to have one positive node, one patient (10%) two positive nodes, four patients (40%) three positive nodes, and three patients (30%) more than three positive nodes. In the 44 patients who had axillary ultrasound and were FNA negative, we conducted sentinel node study: 36 patients (81.8%) were pN0i^-, three (6.8%) were pN0i⁺, one patient (2.2%) had a micrometastases, and three patients (9%) had macrometastases (pN1a).

Conclusion

Axillary study with ultrasound and FNA before surgery allows excluding a group of patients to make the sentinel node.