Outcomes of ultrasound-guided axillary lymph node sampling in the absence of primary breast cancer

Kirema Garcia-Reyes; Heather I Greenwood; Elissa R Price

doi:10.1016/j.clinimag.2017.05.005

Outcomes of ultrasound-guided axillary lymph node sampling in the absence of primary breast cancer

Clin Imaging. 2017 Jul-Aug:44:92-96. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2017.05.005. Epub 2017 May 5.

Authors

Kirema Garcia-Reyes¹, Heather I Greenwood², Elissa R Price³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, 1600 Divisadero St, Rm C-250, San Francisco, CA 94115. Electronic address: kirema.garcia-reyes@ucsf.edu.
² Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, 1600 Divisadero St, Rm C-250, San Francisco, CA 94115. Electronic address: heather.greenwood@ucsf.edu.
³ Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, 1600 Divisadero St, Rm C-250, San Francisco, CA 94115. Electronic address: elissa.price@ucsf.edu.

PMID: 28494278
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2017.05.005

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate outcomes of lymph node sampling in patients with suspicious axillary nodes without a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Materials and methods: We retrospectively identified all axillary ultrasound-guided sampling performed at our institution from 2003 to 2016 in patients. without malignancy.

Results: Seventy-eight lymph nodes met inclusion criteria. Two of the 78 sampled nodes (2.6%) were malignant.

Conclusion: Sampling of suspicious nodes in patients without a history of breast cancer rarely yields malignancy. The malignancy rate approaches the 2% BIRADS 3 threshold. Further data may demonstrate that short-interval imaging follow-up is a safe alternative to sampling in this cohort.

Keywords: Axillary lymph nodes; Breast cancer; Fine needle aspiration (FNA); Ultrasound.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Axilla / pathology*
Biopsy, Fine-Needle / methods*
Breast Neoplasms / pathology
Female
Humans
Leukemia, Lymphoid / pathology
Lymph Nodes / pathology*
Lymphatic Metastasis / pathology
Middle Aged
Retrospective Studies
Sensitivity and Specificity
Ultrasonography / methods