Women with early-stage breast cancer and one or two positive
sentinel lymph nodes who undergo a procedure called sentinel
lymph node dissection (SLND) fare just as well as those who have
a more aggressive procedure called axillary lymph node
dissection (ALND). In addition, the majority of women with small
tumors could avoid ALND altogether if they elect to undergo
breast-conserving therapy (lumpectomy and radiotherapy) rather
than mastectomy, surgeons suggest in a new study published in
the January issue of the Journal of the American College of
Surgeons. In the past when it came to staging and removing
invasive breast cancer, surgeons relied on ALND, which removes
about 10 or more lymph nodes in the under arm area. In recent
years, however, SLND has grown in use as a standard of care for
assessing the status of the lymph nodes. SLND removes only one
to two lymph nodes - the ones that receive lymphatic drainage
first from the primary tumor - and is preferred by many women
who seek to avoid ALND and have a les