Why the study?
Do fat clearance techniques improve the isolation of small lymph nodes from surgical breast cancer specimens compared to traditional tactile perception?
Do fat clearance techniques improve the isolation of small lymph nodes from surgical breast cancer specimens compared to traditional tactile perception?
Fat clearance techniques may improve the isolation of small lymph nodes in breast cancer specimens, allowing for more accurate pathological staging.
May support pathology workflow evaluation in breast cancer; leaves open impact on outcomes and requires prospective validation before practice change.
The isolation of lymph nodes less than 4.0 mm in diameter from the fatty tissue of surgical breast cancer specimens through the traditional method of tactile perception is difficult, time consuming and failed the identification of smaller lymph nodes. The reported numbers of lymph nodes detected through this technique vary widely in the literature demonstrating its inappropriateness. The use of fat clearance techniques however may contribute to the isolation of additional nodes, allowing for appropriate pathological staging of the disease.
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Fabiana Resende Rodrigues (2014) studied this question.
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