Preoperative Localisation of the Sentinel Lymph Node in Breast Cancer

NHS Tayside

Status: Completed

Conditions: Breast Cancer

Treatments: Procedure: Preoperative sentinel lymph node identification and marking

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01154972

2010ON03

Details and patient eligibility

About

When a person has breast cancer it is necessary to find out whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes in the armpit because if it has, further treatment is likely to be needed. There are many of these nodes but when the breast cancer spreads, it does so in a step-by-step fashion, starting with the so-called Sentinel Lymph Node (SLN). At present, the only way to be sure whether there is cancer in the lymph nodes or not is to perform an operation to remove at least the SLN. If the pathologist finds cancer in the SLN, a second operation is usually required to remove further nodes in case they contain cancer too. Surgical removal of the lymph nodes in the armpit can cause difficulties for the patient afterwards, such as pain and swelling in the arm. If there is no cancer in the SLN, no further operations on the armpit are needed. The investigators wish to find out whether in some patients, operations on the armpit can be avoided completely. The first step in doing this is to test whether the investigators can find out which is the SLN before the operation, using a combination of an injection and ultrasound scanning. The injection - into the skin of the breast - would be a radioactive substance, which is the usual way the surgeon finds the SLN. The radioactive substance collects in the SLN and the investigators would use a "gamma probe" over the surface of the armpit to detect the radiation. In this initial study, the investigators would aim to find the SLN before the operation and place a marker wire in it so that the surgeon could check whether the investigators had found the correct node.

Enrollment: 59 patients

Sex: Female

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosed with invasive breast cancer suitable for primary surgical treatment
• Booked for surgical Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy

Exclusion criteria

• Unable to give informed consent
• Known bleeding disorder
• Previous axillary surgery
• Previously treated for the current tumour with chemotherapy or hormone therapy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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59 participants in 1 patient group

Single arm study - Sentinel Node Localisation

Experimental group

Treatment:

Procedure: Preoperative sentinel lymph node identification and marking