One more question SLNB and ALND

Nancy2581

I had a sentinel lymph node biopsy during my lumpectomy.  Three nodes were taken and 1 showed positive so 1/3.  Does this mean they will make me do an axillary lymph node dissection now?

Thanks,

Nancy

simplelife4real

not necessarily.....the guidelines are changing in this regard.  Your breast surgeon is the best on to answer that question.  Do you know what kind of BC you have?  Triple negative, her2+, er/pr+?  They are going toward not doing ALND and treating the nodes with radiation, but it depends on the type of bc, how many nodes involved etc.

Nancy2581

It's IDC.  I am ER+(100%)/PR+(58%) and Her2-.  Thanks for the feedback.

Nancy

juneping

i had my SLNB at the MX and i had 2 postives so the BS did the ALND. 

there seems to be different approaches so it's better to talk to your BS.

Nancy2581

My surgery description said partial mastectomy right breast, sentinel node biopsy and possible axillary node dissection.  Well for whatever reason they didn't do the ALND  when they had the chance so now they might make me go through all of the surgery again? There had to be a reason why they didn't do it at the time.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Nancy

coraleliz

I had a BMX with sentinal nodes taken from both sides. My BS wouldn't do an ALND. My MO thought I should have the ALND. I did have radiation, which I was hoping to avoid, instead of the ALND.

 There are studies done on lumpectomy patients with 1-3(or maybe it was 1-4) positive nodes. The women getting the ALND didn't do any better than those receiving radiation. Radiation is thought by some to have a lower incidence of lymphedema associated with it. So radiation might be a possible alternative for you 

Here's a NYtimes article. I can't remember the name of the study

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/health/research/...

Nancy2581

That's a good article.  Thanks for sharing it.  The surgeon made the call at the time of my surgery and didn't do an axillary lymph node dissection when she could have.

Nancy

Jennie93

My surgeon took out 6 nodes. I guess that's how many "lit up" with the tracer?  Nobody was expecting to find anything there, ultrasound and PET scan showed nothing, but lo and behold, 3 of them had visible cancer cells and a 4th was later found to have some microscopic ones.  My team said that in times past they probably would have gone in again and removed the rest of them. But now they consider it just as good (or better) to just radiate the heck out of 'em.  So that's what I got.  Plus chemo, of course.