Article Text
Abstract
Introduction To explore the feasibility of indocyanine green (ICG) for sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) detection after neo-adjuvant chemotheraphy (NACT) in ycN0 patients.
Methods Patients diagnosed with breast cancer who were initially cN1/N2 and received neo adjuvant chemotheraphy and were converted to ycN0 had SLNB detection with ICG as per institution protocol. Sentinel lymph node (SLN) was harvested and axillary clearance was done in all patients irrespective of SLN status. SLN identification rate and false negative rate were calculated.
Results Forty patients were involved in the study, with most of the patients being in their fifth decade. Median BMI of patient was 28 (range 22–38). SLN was identified in 38 patients, total of 130 SLN nodes were detected, with median being 3.2(2–5). Median nodes detected in ALND specimen was 18 (15-26). The identification rate was 95% and false negative rate was 7.5%. None of the patients had any complications with ICG injection.
Conclusion/Implications ICG-based fluorescence technique is feasible for SLNB in node negative patients after receiving NACT. Comparative study against standard dual dye technique needs to be conducted for establishing the efficacy of ICG.