Evaluation of axillary lymph node staging is an important prognostic indicator for patients with early stage breast cancer.Moreover preoperative assessment of axillary lymph nodes is crucial for surgical and treatment planning. Over the last years Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy(SLNB) replaced complete lymphadenectomy and is now used as the gold standard technique for staging of the axilla.However SLNB is a complex laboratory technique and is accompanied by clinical complications such as lymphedema, sensitivity and mobility loss of ipsilateral upper limb and anaphylactic reactions. Having similar specificity...

From April 2018 until August 2019, 336 patients diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer underwent breast ultrasound and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of axillary lymph nodes in our department.lymph nodes where characterised as: benign with cortical thickening ≤ 3mm, intermediate risk with cortical thickening ≤ 3mm but eccentrically bulging cortex, suspicious with cortical thickening ≥ 3mm or loss of central fatty hilum. Round morphology, hypoechogenicity and vascularization of lymph node cortex where additionally considered as suspicious ultrasound features. In cases where no suspicious node was detected we...

Out of all 336 patients, FNA was positive in 76(23%) cases, with total sensitivity 59% and specificity 100%. The main reason for false negative results is assumed to be the inability of the method to detect lymph nodes with small tumor deposits-micrometastasis. Ιnitially sensitivity(se) was measured in correlation with primary tumor size and the following observations have been made: 30%se for tumors ≤ 1 cm, 50%se for tumors sizing 1-2 cm, 70%se for tumors sizing 2-5 cm. Subsequently sensitivity was measured in correlation with ultrasound...

Sensitivity and usefulness of the method increases as the size of the tumor increases and ismaximized in preoperative evaluation of patients with primary tumor size ≥ 2cm. Positiveness of the method increases in suspicious lymphadenopathy. Positive cytology can overlap sentinel lymphadenectomy and its concomitant adverse effects, significantly limiting patients morbidity in the preoperative stage.

A. Paraskevopoulou; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose I. Georgiou; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose N. Kritikos; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose K. Psarras; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose E. T. Christodoulopoulou; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose S. Kattimeris; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose O. Aggelatou; Athens/GR - nothing to disclose

Xin Hu, Xiao Zhou, Huawei Yang et al. Axillary ultrasound and fine needle aspiration biopsy in the preoperative diagnosis of axillary metastases in early-stage breast cancer. Oncol Lett. 2018 Jun; 15(6): 8477–8483. Livio Portela Cardoso-Coelho, Rafael Soares Borges, Airlane Pereira Alencar et al. Comparative study between ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology of axillary lymph nodes and sentinel lymph node histopathology in early-stage breast cancer. Oncology Letters 13: 3299-3302, 2017. Fan Zhang, Jing Zhang, Qing-xin Meng et al.Ultrasound combined with fine needle aspiration cytology for the...