Sentinel node role in breast cancer surgery.

Radical surgery of breast can- cer includes lymphadenectomy of axilla as well as the dissection of the neoplastic tissue. However recently many works have raised doubts on the opportunity of performing routi- nary axillary dissection, which elevates morbidi- ty risk, in absence of axillary metastases. However, unfortunately, information on axil- lary lymph node pathology, is not available with any other technique excluding complete dissec- tion and istopathological examination. Sentinel node technique is a new methodolo- gy that consents evaluation of lymph node sta- tus in the operating theatre. It allows the sur- geon to judge on the opportunity of carrying out the lymphadenectomy or not.