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Amazing technology that reduces unnecessary surgeries: What's so magical about sentinel lymph node biopsy?
In cancer treatment, precision and efficiency are the keys to success. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is an innovative technology that can reduce unnecessary surgery by identifying cancer spread at an early stage, which has attracted the attention and research of many medical professionals.
Definition of Messenger Lymph Nodes
Messenger lymph nodes are considered to be the lymph nodes or groups of lymph nodes that initially drain the cancer. When cancer cells begin to spread, they first reach these lymph nodes. Therefore, examining these lymph nodes can help doctors understand how the cancer has spread and choose appropriate treatment options for the patient.
Messenger Lymph Node Biopsy Procedure
During a messenger lymph node biopsy, your doctor first uses a lymphoscan technique to mark the lymph nodes by injecting a light radioactive substance. The marked lymph nodes are then detected using different techniques such as blue staining or gamma detectors.
The purpose of this technique is to determine if the cancer has spread to the first lymph node; if this lymph node does not contain cancer cells, the chances of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body are low.
Clinical Advantages
Messenger lymph node biopsy has many clinical advantages. First, it significantly reduces unnecessary lymph node removal surgeries, thereby reducing the risk of complications such as lymphedema. By focusing on the lymph nodes most likely to contain metastatic cancer cells, this technology may also help detect micrometastases, thereby changing staging and treatment plans.
This technique is most common in surgeries for breast cancer and malignant melanoma, but it has also shown some success in other tumors such as colon cancer.
Advantages in research
Detection of messenger lymph nodes also provides new insights into the study of cancer spread. Researchers can use this technology to explore multiple areas including tumor biology, metastasis mechanisms, and even cancer immunology.
Technical challenges and application limitations
Although messenger lymph node biopsy is an important technique, it is not without flaws. Particularly in patients with melanoma, failure to detect cancer cells in the lymph nodes can lead to false-negative results and a missed diagnosis. Furthermore, for patients with positive messenger lymph nodes, survival after total lymph node dissection has not been definitively improved compared with that without total lymph node dissection.
History
The concept of messenger lymph nodes was first proposed by Gould et al. in 1960 and has been widely used in Cabanas' clinical practice. With the development of technology, many studies have shown that this biopsy method can effectively reduce unnecessary surgeries and improve patients' quality of life.
For example, in the first randomized controlled trial led by Umberto Veronesi of the European Agency for Research on Oncology, results showed that patients with tumors smaller than 2 centimeters in diameter could safely skip the procedure if their messenger lymph nodes were biopsy-confirmed to be cancer-free. Axillary lymph node removal.
Future Outlook
With the advancement of medical technology, messenger lymph node biopsy will continue to be optimized to reduce unnecessary surgery and complications. Technically speaking, there is still room for further research and improvement, especially with regard to the problem of false negatives. In the future, this technology may help patients with more types of cancer.
So, just how useful is the innovative technology of messenger lymph node biopsy in cancer treatment?
