RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Detection of Micrometastases in Cervical Cancer With a System that Evaluates Both Sentinel and Nonsentinel Lymph Nodes JF International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer JO Int J Gynecol Cancer FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 708-711 OP 708-711 DO 10.1111/IGC.0b013e3181a39112 VO 19 IS 4 A1 Satoshi Okamoto A1 Hitoshi Niikura A1 Kosuke Yoshinaga A1 Satoru Nagase A1 Tadao Takano A1 Kiyoshi Ito A1 Nobuo Yaegashi YR 2009 UL http://ijgc.bmj.com/content/19/4/708-711.abstract AB The aim is to reevaluate the accuracy of our sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection procedure and the use of SLN examination for detecting cervical cancer micrometastases. Patients affected by cervical cancer who underwent radical hysterectomy and total pelvic lymphadenectomy at Tohoku University Hospital from 2001 to 2003 were enrolled in this study. Patients in whom lymph node metastases were detected by routine histological examination or in whom no SLNs could be detected were excluded. Paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were cut into 3-μm thick slides at 200-μm intervals for both SLNs and non-SLNs. All lymph nodes were evaluated with step-serial sectioning and immunohistochemistry with an anticytokeratin antibody. One of the 10 patients had micrometastases, and 1 patient had isolated tumor cells (ITCs) in their SLNs. Thus, 2 (6%) of the 31 SLNs detected by our method had cancer cells. In contrast, none of the 309 non-SLNs obtained from 10 patients had micrometastases. The SLN micrometastases were detected in the right external iliac basin. The ITCs were detected in the left external iliac basin. The patient with micrometastases did not have vascular invasion but experienced recurrence. The case with ITCs had vascular invasion; however, she received adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and had no recurrence after 4 years. Our study suggests that only SLNs will contain micrometastases or ITCs, and non-SLNs will not. The SLNs detected by our method are probably real given the large total number of nodes evaluated. How micrometastases affect prognosis and the best way to detect them are areas of further study.