Assessment of sentinel lymph node in cervical cancer: review of literature

Abstract

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is a novel method for the surgical management of patients with cervical cancer. Sentinel nodes have a higher chance of harbouring metastases than non-sentinel nodes. Assessment of sentinel nodes provides an opportunity to stage patients intraoperatively and avoid complete pelvic lymph node dissection and hence its morbidities. The aim of this article is to review the diagnostic performance of sentinel node detection, to determine which technique (blue dye, Tc or both) has the highest detection rate and sensitivity, and also to illustrate different approaches of histological assessment of the sentinel lymph node biopsy.