The sentinel node market experienced high growth in the early and mid-1990s, starting with melanoma sentinel node surgical search and breast cancer sentinel node staging; both are currently considered standards of care.[4] The use of a radioactive tracer, rather than a coloured dye, was proposed in 1984.[5][6]
Clinical use
To locate the draining lymph nodes or sentinel lymph nodes from a breast cancer tumour, a Technetium-99m based radiopharmaceutical is common. This may be a nanocolloid or sestamibi.[7] Although imaging with a gamma camera may also take place, the idea of a small gamma probe is that it can be used to identify lymph nodes (or other sites) with uptake at a much higher resolution during an operation. The probe may be collimated to restrict the field of detection further.[8][9]
