A sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node that drains a cancer. If a cancer has not spread to the first draining lymph node near a cancer, there is a high likelihood it has not spread elsewhere.
Lymphoscintigraphy (sentinel lymph node mapping) is an imaging technique used to identify the lymph drainage basin, determine the number of sentinel nodes, differentiate sentinel nodes from subsequent nodes, locate the sentinel node in an unexpected location, and mark the sentinel node over the skin for biopsy.
These sentinel nodes are thus identifiable and are the most likely to harbor any regional metastatic disease. If these nodes alone are biopsied and are normal, the rest of the lymph node group can be spared.
Primarily it allows implementation to be shifted from the list to the nodes themselves. Generally this is more efficient because the list's sole responsibility is the sentinel (which is guaranteed to exist so long as the list is in scope) to which it delegates all responsibility with regards the actual nodes. A tail sentinel improves efficiency further by ensuring the head sentinel node never points to NULL. Head and tail sentinels are most useful in sorted lists. When data is added to the list, the list immediately passes the data to the head node. When the head node receives data it immediately passes it to the next node, and sets its next node to the return value. The data passes from one node to the next until it reaches a node that contains larger data, or it reaches the tail sentinel. Either way, a new node is created such that it points to the current node, and returns the new node to the calling node which updates its next node to point to the new node. All previous nodes remain unchanged by returning themselves to the calling nodes, all the way back to the head. This is more efficient than using a non-sentinel list. With this implementation, the list itself must traverse the nodes (if any) to locate the insertion point and then update the links between the nodes. This is because if there are no nodes, the list must handle the insertion itself. Therefore it must handle all insertions, nodes or not. in other words, sentinel nodes shift the responsibility for insertion to the nodes themselves. Since traversal is required anyway, it makes sense to reduce the level of indirection and let the nodes sort themselves out, rather than forcing them into order by a class that has no inherent knowledge of the data it is trying to insert. Data sorting is the responsibility of the nodes that contain it, not the list itself.
Primarily it allows implementation to be shifted from the list to the nodes themselves. Generally this is more efficient because the list's sole responsibility is the sentinel (which is guaranteed to exist so long as the list is in scope) to which it delegates all responsibility with regards the actual nodes. A tail sentinel improves efficiency further by ensuring the head sentinel node never points to NULL. Head and tail sentinels are most useful in sorted lists. When data is added to the list, the list immediately passes the data to the head node. When the head node receives data it immediately passes it to the next node, and sets its next node to the return value. The data passes from one node to the next until it reaches a node that contains larger data, or it reaches the tail sentinel. Either way, a new node is created such that it points to the current node, and returns the new node to the calling node which updates its next node to point to the new node. All previous nodes remain unchanged by returning themselves to the calling nodes, all the way back to the head. This is more efficient than using a non-sentinel list. With this implementation, the list itself must traverse the nodes (if any) to locate the insertion point and then update the links between the nodes. This is because if there are no nodes, the list must handle the insertion itself. Therefore it must handle all insertions, nodes or not. in other words, sentinel nodes shift the responsibility for insertion to the nodes themselves. Since traversal is required anyway, it makes sense to reduce the level of indirection and let the nodes sort themselves out, rather than forcing them into order by a class that has no inherent knowledge of the data it is trying to insert. Data sorting is the responsibility of the nodes that contain it, not the list itself.
Breast cancer most commonly metastasises first to lymph nodes in the axilla of the same side as the affected breast. In more advanced disease, the cancer commonly metastasises to lymph nodes in other regions, to bone, to the liver, and/or to the lungs, and later possibly also to the contralateral breast and to other organs. When there is no evident lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis, the sentinel node may be examined to confirm absence of axillary lymph node metastasis. The lymph nodes in the axilla drain fluid (lymph) from the breast by interconnecting lymph vessels, and the "sentinel node" is the first node to receive lymph from the particular tumour. If there is no tumour in the sentinel node (and no signs of metastasis to other sites), breast cancer has a very good chance of cure after treatment.
A positive sentinel node suggests that cancer cells have spread from the primary tumor to nearby lymph nodes. Further evaluation and treatment, such as lymph node dissection and adjuvant therapy, may be needed to determine the extent of spread and reduce the risk of recurrence.
A new technique called sentinel lymph node mapping and biopsy often eliminates the need for removing some or all lymph nodes by testing the first lymph node for cancer.
poor timing of the dye injection, the way in which the pathologist prepared the tissue for examination, or the existence of previously undiscovered sentinel nodes.
Questions related to which patients should have resection of regional lymph nodes have led to an intermediary procedure known as sentinel node mapping and biopsy.
In medical terminology, a node refers to a small, round, or oval-shaped structure. It can refer to lymph nodes, which are part of the immune system and help fight infection, or to other types of nodes such as nerve nodes or lymphatic nodes.
It will be come a terminal node. Normally we call terminal nodes leaf nodes because a leaf has no branches other than its parent.
If a radioisotope tracer or blue dye is injected into the area of the primary tumor, very shortly it will travel to the lymph nodes draining that area.