False-Negative Sentinel Node Biopsy

farmerjo

Has anyone experienced this? How has it changed your staging/prognosis?

My SNB at BMX was negative (2/15) - only one node taken. I am currently 3 days post-op from axillary dissection - I discovered my enlarged node in the shower.

I get conflicting information whether this is regarded as a local/regional recurrence; after all, it IS the original cancer (biopsy proven) that was never treated.

Pet and MRI clean, TG.

muska

Hi Farmerjo, I am very sorry to hear you have to deal with this again and so soon after the first diagnosis.
I think there is no way to know for sure whether it was missed or maybe it is a recurrence. When I had SNB during my MBX the surgeon took two nodes: one was clean but the other had cancer. In your case, it was just one node, so it was easy to miss. From your profile it appears you didn't have any systemic treatment. Why didn't you get chemo?

SpecialK

My SNB was negative in the OR, but upon exam in the lab was found to contain 20 IST (isolated tumor cells - not surprising it was missed), and I had ALND 5 weeks later. I was diagnosed during the time period when surgeons were starting to skip ALND surgery after finding IST or a micromet, but I am glad both my progressive surgeon, a pioneer of SNB, and my MO were insistent due to my Her2+ status. That surgery revealed a large positive node further up the chain. I had a pre-surgical MRI that missed the larger positive node as well. My understanding is that SNB is 90-95% accurate.

farmerjo

Thanks SpecialK and Muska!

My BS called - he took 11 nodes...just the one was positive and it was 2 cm - I was worried with a lymph node that size!

He continues to say it was there all along, a false-negative SNB.

I did not get chemo at original dx because I was told I didn't need it. Hmmmmmm. Looks like I did.

cp418

Yes - this happened to me. During initial dx when they biopsied my breast tumor they also attempted a needle biopsy of under arm lymph node. They must have missed it and initially told probably stage 1. At lumpectomy surgery 1/18 nodes were positive so jumped to stage 2 and got chemo. (This was before Oncotype testing allowed for a positive node. Node positive patients back then automatically were given chemo - now there is better screening for any benefit.)

farmerjo

Bump.

Adelozier

bump