To explore the effect of different injection locations of
99m
Tc-sulfur colloid (
99m
Tc-SC) for sentinel lymph node de
tection in breast cancer.
Methods:
Breast cancer patients before treatment were divided into two groups randomly according to subcutaneous injection locations (areola or tumor around). All patients underwent SPECT planar scan 2 hours after
99m
Tc-SC injection. SPECT/CT scan was performed to distinguish lymph node or vessel in some patients.
2
test was used to analyze the influence of two injection locations and clinic individual characteristics
such as age
menopausal stage and tumor size
on the detection rates of axillary sentinel lymph node (A-SLN)
internal mammary sentinel lymph node (IM-SLN) and total sentinel lymph node (T-SLN).
Results:
The detection rates of A-SLN
IM-SLN and T-SLN were 78.7%
12.0% and 80.6%
respectively in 558 enrollment patients. Total 173 patients injected around the tumor. Among these patients
the detection rates of A-SLN
IM-SLN and T-SLN were 65.3%
19.7% and 69.4%
respectively. Areola around injection was performed in each of 385 patients
and the detectionrates of A-SLN
IM-SLN and T-SLN were 84.7%
8.6% and 85.7%
respectively. The detection rates of T-SLN (
P
<0.001) and A-SLN (
P
<0.001) in young (
P
<0.001) and nonmenopausal (
P
<0.001) patients were higher significantly than old and menopausal patients. However
age (
P
=0.436) and menopausal stage (
P
=0.354) didn't effect the detection rate of IM-SLN. The detection rates of T-SLN (
P
<0.001)
A-SLN (
P
<0.001) were higher significantly in patients with areola around injection than patients with tumor around injection. However
the detection rate of IM-SLN (
P
<0.001) in patient with areola around injection was lower compared with patients with tumor around injection.
Conclusion:
Young patients with areola around injection had high detection rate of A-SLN