Sentinel-node biopsy is a safe and accurate method of screening the axillary nodes for metastasis in women with a small breast cancer.

In the large majority of patients with breast cancer, lymphoscintigraphy and gamma-probe-guided surgery can be used to locate the sentinel node in the axilla, and thereby provide important information about the status of axillary nodes. Patients without clinical involvement of the axilla should undergo sentinel-node biopsy routinely, and may be spared complete axillary dissection when the sentinel node is disease-free.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy using a gamma ray-detecting probe allows staging of the axilla with high accuracy in patients with primary breast cancer. A randomized trial is necessary to determine whether axillary dissection may be avoided in those patients with an uninvolved sentinel lymph node.

Identified risk factors provide a limited (<30 %) risk estimate even with target tissue dosimetry. These data strongly suggest the existence of unidentified individual susceptibilities to radiation-associated disease.