The appropriate axillary procedure after a positive sentinel node in breast cancer patients: the "Hôpital Tenon" score revisited. A two-institution study

INTRODUCTION

Until recently, completion ALND has been considered the standard of care after a positive SN in breast cancer patients. However, most patients will not display further axillary involvement. The Tenon score is a simple nomogram that can be used intraoperatively to avoid completion ALND in low-risk patients. We aimed at validating the Tenon score on a SN-positive patient sample that had been preoperatively selected using axillary US examination.

PATIENTS AND METHOD

We used a retrospective analysis of our bicentric database that included 246 breast cancer patients with a positive SN. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, as well as positive and negative predictive values for each cut-off point. ROCs were constructed and corresponding AUC values were calculated as a measure of discriminative capacity.

RESULTS

At least one non-SN was positive in 52 patients (21.1 %). 118 patients (48 %) had a score up to 5. Among them, three had at least one positive non-SN. NPV was 97.5 %. Using that threshold, the ROCs analysis showed an AUC of 0.822 (95 % CI 0.764-0.880).

CONCLUSION

Use of preoperative axillary US examination led to a modification of the proposed Tenon cut-off value from 3.5 to 5 to attain good predictive power for non-SN status. Straightforward intraoperative use of the Tenon score may be considered an advantage over other available nomograms.

[Congenital dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans: a case report]

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans is a rare low-grade fibrohistiocytic tumor with onset normally at ages between 20 and 50 years. It presents as a violaceous plaque or macule with an appearance suggestive of vascular lesion, on which nodular lesions appear later. Histological diagnosis is based on the presence of a spindle-cell tumor arranged in small bundles in a characteristic cartwheel pattern. The local recurrence rate is high but metastases are rare. The treatment is surgical resection with wide margins. The tumor rarely affects children under 16 years of age and it is even less common at birth--only 27 congenital cases have been described in the literature. We describe the case of a 10-year-old boy with dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans present since birth and currently without signs of recurrence.