Increased Accuracy for Lymph Node Metastases in Breast Cancer
Friday December 22, 2006
If your breast biopsy tested positive for breast cancer, you will also need to know if the disease has spread (metasticized). While your surgeon is removing the tumor, a sample af lymph nodes will also be removed, to check for the presence of micro- and macrometastases. The lymph system is one of the highways of the body through which cancer can travel. That is the reason that an accurate result on the lymph nodes is important, as those test results will help determine the stage of the cancer, as well as treatment. A new method, called the GeneSearch (TM) Breast Lymph Node
(BLN) assay, examines 50% of a lymph node, instead of the 5% used in current touch prep cytology. BLN promises to yield greater accuracy, and to spare patients the anxiety of inconclusive test results or additional surgery. This new technology was presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium by Peter Blumencranz, MD, of Morton Plant Mease Healthcare.
Image from About.com's ADAM Medical Encyclopedia
Comments
As I sit here, a 10 month survivor, it dismays me as to why 50% of the lymph nodes removed rather than 5% has not been standard on all lymph nodes biopsied. However, I am grateful that women undergoing breast cancer surgery in the future will have a better chance of not returning to surgery because of growth that was not caught. As sisters we will win this fight. Thank you Dr. Peter Blumencranz.