Axillary surgery
Axillary surgery
Axillary surgery is an important part of breast cancer treatment, and advances like sentinel lymph node biopsy have minimized the invasiveness of the procedure while still providing necessary diagnostic and staging information.
- Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB):
- A less invasive technique where only the first lymph node (or nodes) that drain the breast are removed and examined for cancer.
- If cancer is found in the sentinel node, further surgery (such as ALND) may be needed.
- SLNB has become the standard approach in many cases, especially for early-stage breast cancer.
- Axillary Lymph Node Dissection (ALND):
- A more extensive procedure where all lymph nodes are removed from the axilla.
- It is usually offered when there is a pre-operative percutaneous biopsy confirming the presence of cancer cells in the axillary lymph nodes.
