Fluorescent signal lymph node mapping using indocyanine green in early breast cancer patients (Botkin Hospital experience)

Modern diagnostic methods with more accurate staging of the tumor process and effective high-tech treatment of breast cancer are very relevant, since this disease ranks first in the structure of cancer morbidity and mortality among women. Mapping of the signal lymph node is an alternative to axillary lymphatic dissection in patients with clinically intact regional lymph nodes (cN0). This allows patients to avoid such formidable, often and disabling complications of lymphatic dissection as prolonged postoperative lymphorrhea and lymphatic swelling of the upper extremity (lymphostasis). Radioisotope is the standard method of performing lymph node mapping, but recent years there have been more and more scientific studies and publications on the effectiveness of the non-toxic and non-radioisotope method in oncosurgery – fluorescent lymphography with indocyanine green.This article analyzes the experience and results of performing a mapping signal lymph node by a fluorescent method with indocyanine green at an early staged breast cancer in the Botkin Hospital, Moscow.