ABSTRACT
Introduction .............................................................................................................................90 Dose A dm inistration ..............................................................................................................93 Imaging Protocol.....................................................................................................................96 Radioguided Surgery ........................................................................................................ 101 S u m m ary ............................................................................................................................. 105
INTRODUCTION
A diagnostic strategy utilizing selective lymph node sampling directed by lymphoscintigraphic methods has been advocated in recent years. It has been pro posed that meticulous pathological study o f the sentinel lymph node (SLN), the primary lymph node draining the malignant lesion, will accurately predict the pathologic status o f the remainder of the draining lymph node basin. This hy pothesis has been shown to be true, in both melanoma and more recendy carci noma of the breast.1 Not only nodes o f the draining basin but in-transit lymph nodes, situated between the injection site and the anatomically recognized re gional lymph node groups, have been found to accurately predict the pathologic status o f the regional nodal basin as a whole (Fig. 8.1). The prospect of less mor bid and more accurate tumor staging is apparent and appealing.2
