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Introduction/Background Lymph node staging is an important prognostic factor in breast cancer. Lymph node fine-needle cytopuncture is a simple, non-invasive procedure that avoids unnecessary systematic adenectomy and has proven its effectiveness in malignant tumor pathology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the ultrasound-guided cytopuncture in suspicious lymph nodes in breast cancer stadification and follow-up. Methodology Our retrospective study involved the analysis of 39 lymph node fine-needle cytopuncture, without aspiration, performed on patients with breast cancer in a period of two years and two months, ranging from August 2021 to October 2023. Results In our study, 7 patients were newly diagnosed with cancer (18% ) and 32 with suspicion of lymph node recurrence (82%). The cytopuncture was performed on 6 suspicious supra-clavicular nodes (15.4%°), 18 suspicious axillary nodes homolateral to the breast tumor (46.1%) and 15 suspicious axillary nodes contralateral to the breast tumor (38.5%). Cytology was not conclusive in only one patient (2.6%). Conclusive cytology were benign in 22 cases (58%), malignant in 15 cases (39.5%) and suspicious in one case (2.5%). Ulterior adenectomy was performed on only two lymph nodes with negative cytology and negative histology as well. Conclusion Fine-needle cytopuncture is a safe and fast diagnostic approach for the evaluation of suspicious lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer. Disclosures We have no potential conflict of interest to report.
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Abed et al. (2024) studied this question.
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