Chen JJ, Yu BH, Shen TJ, Wang Y, Ren F, Yang LR, Dong Y, Zheng MJ, Hao S, Yang WT, Wu J. A prospective comparison of a modified miniaturised hand-held epifluorescence microscope and touch imprint cytology for evaluation of axillary sentinel lymph nodes intraoperatively in breast cancer patients.
Cytopathology 2024;
35:136-144. [PMID:
37795924 DOI:
10.1111/cyt.13312]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Revised: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The management of axillary lymph nodes in early-stage breast cancer patients has changed considerably, with the primary focus shifting from the examination of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) to toward the detection of all macro-metastases. However, current methods, such as touch imprint cytology (TIC) and frozen sections, are inadequate for clinical needs. To address this issue, we proposed a novel miniaturised epifluorescence widefield microscope (MEW-M) to assess SLN status intraoperatively for improved diagnostic efficiency.
METHODS
A prospective, side-by-side comparison of intraoperative SLN evaluation between MEW-M and TIC was performed.
RESULTS
A total of 73 patients with 319 SLNs consecutive enrolled in this study. MEW-M showed significantly superior image quality compared to TIC (median score 3.1 vs 2.1, p < 0.0001) and had a shorter time to issue results (10.3 vs 19.4 min, p < 0.0001). Likelihood ratio analysis illustrated that the positive likelihood ratio value of MEW-M compared with TIC was infinitely great vs 52.37 (95% CI, 21.96-124.90) in model 1 (classifying results into negative/positive), infinitely great vs 52.37 (95% CI, 21.96-124.90) in model 2 (classifying results into macro-metastasis/others, and TIC results followed the same classification as model 1), respectively. Similarly, the negative likelihood ratio values of MEW-M compared with TIC were 0.055 (95% CI, 0.018-0.160) and 0.074 (95% CI, 0.029-0.190) in model 1; and 0.019 (95% CI, 0.003-0.130) vs 0.020 (95% CI, 0.003-0.140) in model 2, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
MEW-M is a promising technique that can be utilised to provide a rapid and accurate intraoperative assessment of SLN in a clinical setting to help improve decision-making in axillary surgery.
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