Patient age affects identification rate of sentinel nodes in breast cancer

Abstract Background : The aim of this study was to investigate whether clinicopathological features affect the success rate of identifying sentinel nodes using a combination method of dye and radioisotope in breast cancer patients. Methods : Sentinel node biopsy was performed in patients ( n  = 154) with stage I and II breast cancer using a combination method. The association between the clinicopathological features of breast cancer and the success rate in the identification of sentinel nodes was investigated. Results : Sentinel nodes were successfully identified in 147 (95.5%) of the 154 patients. There was a concordance between the sentinel-node and axillary-node status in 146 (99.3%) of 147 cases. The false negative rate of the sentinel node biopsy was 2.4% (1/42). The identification rate of sentinel nodes was significantly ( P  = 0.005) lower in patients ≥60 years (84.4%) than in those  P P  = 0.0006) lower in patients ≥60 years (1.3; range one to four) than in patients  Conclusions : Patient age affects the identification rate of sentinel nodes using a combination method in breast cancer.