Prognostic indicator of dermal backflow detected by SPECT-lymphoscintigraphy in breast cancer patients

Abstract EN

Lymph node in breast cancer is of clinical significance in determining the disease stage, appropriate therapy and predicting the outcome of patients.

Lymphoscintigraphy is essential for preoperative Sentinel Lymph Node (SLN) identification in breast cancer; it provides the surgeon with a roadmap of lymphatic drainage and the location of SLN.

SLN are normally easily detected by lymphoscintigraphy most of the time.

We report a case of right breast cancer for sentinel node mapping at mastectomy.

Planar lymphoscintigraphy images showed tracer dispersion around the injection site with nonvisualization of SLN while SPECT/CT delineated the SLN and identified the initial breast tracer dispersion to be localized dermal activity, indicating dermal lymphatic backflow