Material and methods: In this retrospective study, 27patients have been evaluated. Those patients were submitted toradioguided surgery procedures between March and August 2005.All patients were submitted to sentinel lymph node identification and biopsy.We have considered the following parameters: age of the patient, complementarydata of the clinical presentation of the tumor, exams (mammography, mammaryultrasound), intervention performed by nuclear medicine, surgical data,histological analysis of biopsies and surgical pieces. The age of the patients ranged from 38 to 77 years-old (avrg 54,9). All patients were injected a 300-600µCi (microcuries) activity of the radiopharmaceutical Dextran-99mTc the daybefore surgery intradermal aroundperiareolar area or a deeper peritumoral injection. Scintigraphic images wereperformed by gama–camera for anterior and lateral projections to visualizeradiolabeled sentinel node and mark its correspondent site on suprajacent skin. During surgical act, sentinel lymph node was detected by a gamma probe, excisedby the surgeon and immediately sent to frozen section, at a first time, and forhistopathological examination under hematoxylin/eosin staining.

Results and discussion: In the present studysentinel node identification rate was 92,6% (25/27).Thirty six sentinel lymph nodes were removed, performingan average of 1,3 nodes per patient. In one patient (3,7%) sentinel node wasfound in the internal mammary chain and in 24 patients (88,89%) the location wasaxillary. The average size of the tumors was 28,9mm (range 14-45mm). In 7 cases (25,9%), sentinel lymph nodes were positive for malignancy inthe frozen study, and patients had their axillary lymphanedectomy completed; 17patients (63%) were reported as negative. All frozen results were confirmed atdefinitive histopathologic analysis with cuts of inclusion in paraffin. Radionuclidesentinel lymph node (SLN) localization and biopsy is a staging procedure thatis being used to evaluate patients with invasive breast cancer who haveclinically normal axillary nodes (Keshtgar et al., 1999). According to medical literature the sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast carcinomaallows sampling of the lymph node or nodes that directly drain an area ofcarcinoma of the breast. The major advantage of this technique is that if thesentinel lymph node is negative for metastases, a complete axillarylymphadenectomy can be avoided, with its increased morbidity. So,identification and biopsy of the sentinel lymph node(s) SL is a valid methodfor determining if total axillary dissection in initial breast cancer patientsshould or not be avoided.

CONCLUSION: Sentinel lymph nodelocalization represent an important aid in surgical management of breast cancer, as it can be concluded,in accordance with medical literature.