Ultrasound-Guide Aspiration May Reduce Need for Lymph Node Biopsies

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[At least for some cancers, perhaps. This would be cheaper and less

invasive, that's for sure.]

Ultrasound Technique May Avert Lymph Node Excision 10/19/2007

MDLinx

Moving from a clever adaptation of the MP3 player discussed last week,

dermatologic specialists at the Medical University of Berlin, Germany

recently reported that the use of ultrasound-guided fine needle

aspiration (US-FNA) conferred a high degree of diagnostic accuracy,

eliminating the need for excisional biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes in

their patients with malignant melanoma. Their findings are based on a

study of 590 subjects, each of whom underwent this procedure prior to

complete lymph node excision. The follow-up period was 28 months.

Given that the stated accuracy of this technique with disease-free

nodes is 99%, and that the vast majority of melanoma patients in this

setting (80%) are node-negative, US-FNA is logically poised to be a

reliable and cost-effective approach for melanoma staging. Its proven

utility with breast cancer has already been shown. In actual practice,

the theoretical risk of needle tract seeding with malignant cells was

not a factor in this trial.