If the biopsy is negative, the cancer is unlikely to be metastatic, and no further lymph node surgery is needed. Since lymph vessels are cut during the biopsy, lymph fluid can sometimes accumulate in that area, causing a seroma a pocket of fluid. Any time lymph nodes are removed from the axilla there is also a risk of lymphedema. This can be an ongoing problem, but physical therapy and other treatments can help.
Patients may also experience loss of sensation and decreased range of motion in the area. Skip to Main Content. Print Share Download. To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices.
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Sentinel node biopsy is generally a safe procedure. But as with any surgery, it carries a risk of complications, including:. Although lymphedema is an unlikely complication of sentinel node biopsy, one of the main reasons sentinel node biopsy was developed was to decrease the chance of developing lymphedema, which is more likely to occur if many lymph nodes are removed from one area.
Because only a few lymph nodes are removed, the risk of lymphedema after sentinel node biopsy is small. Dozens of other lymph nodes remain in the area of your body where the sentinel node biopsy is done. In most cases, those remaining lymph nodes can effectively process the lymph fluid. Your doctor might ask you to avoid eating and drinking for a certain period of time before the procedure to avoid anesthesia complications.
Ask your doctor about your situation. Radioactive solution. In this option, a weak radioactive solution is injected near the tumor. This solution is taken up by your lymphatic system and travels to the sentinel nodes.
This injection is usually done several hours or the day before the surgical procedure to remove the sentinel nodes. Blue dye. Your doctor might inject a harmless blue dye into the area near the tumor. Your lymphatic system delivers the dye to the sentinel nodes, staining them bright blue. You might notice a change in your skin color at the injection site. This color usually disappears in time, but it can be permanent. You may have a little bleeding, pain, or bruising at the biopsy site.
There is also a small risk of infection, which can be treated with antibiotics. Allergic reactions to the tracer are rare and usually mild. There is very little exposure to radiation in a sentinel lymph node biopsy. While radiation exposure from the tracer in a sentinel lymph node biopsy is safe for most adults, it can be harmful to an unborn bab y. So be sure to tell your provider if you are pregnant or think you may be pregnant. Your provider may recommend removing and testing more lymph nodes to check for cancer cells.
If your results are negative, it means no cancer cells were found, and it's unlikely that the cancer has spread. You will not need to have any more lymph nodes removed. While sentinel lymph node biopsies are mostly used for people with breast cancer or melanoma, it is currently being studied for use with other types of cancer, including:. The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice.
Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy. What is a sentinel lymph node biopsy? Other names: lymph node biopsy, sentinel node biopsy, sentinel lymph node mapping and biopsy. What is it used for? Why do I need a sentinel lymph node biopsy?
What happens during a sentinel lymph node biopsy? The procedure includes the following steps: A health care provider will apply medicine to numb the skin over the procedure area. The dose of radiation is very small and will cause you no harm.
The blue dye test is sometimes performed at the beginning of the operation. When you are asleep, a small amount of blue dye is injected around the nipple or the cancer. The dye quickly moves into the lymphatic channels and turns the sentinel node blue, again helping the surgeon to locate the sentinel node. The sentinel node gamma probe used by the surgeon to detect radioactivity in the sentinel node during the operation.
Depending on the situation, your surgeon may choose to use only blue dye or only lymphoscintigraphy rather than the combination. The pathologist, knowing this to be an important node, can perform special tests to identify even the smallest cancer deposits if they are present. Rather, it is the first lymph node likely to be affected if cancer cells have escaped into the lymphatic system and the one that is examined most thoroughly by the pathologist.
Most women who have breast conserving surgery and sentinel node biopsy have a shorter hospital stay, a smaller scar and a quicker recovery time than women who have all the lymph nodes removed from under their arm axillary clearance. Sentinel node biopsy removes fewer lymph nodes than the standard operation of axillary clearance. This lowers the risk of developing lymphoedema, pain and numbness. A false-negative result occurs when the lymph node removed as the sentinel first draining node does not contain cancer cells, while another lymph node that does contain cancer cells is left behind in the armpit.
The rate of false-negative results varies between different breast cancer treatment centres. If this happens your surgeon might recommend that you have further surgery to remove all of the glands under your arm full axillary clearance or have radiotherapy to the glands.
In other cases, no further treatment will be needed. If the sentinel node biopsy is negative i. Some patients with breast cancer are still best treated with complete axillary clearance rather than with sentinel node biopsy.
Axillary clearance is usually recommended when the cancer is found in the lymph glands on imaging and biopsy before surgery.
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