Testing of Different Methods for Determining Whether Breast Cancer Has Spread to the Lymph Nodes

Completed · Early Phase 1

Conditions studied: Breast Neoplasms

In brief

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has recently emerged as a less invasive alternative to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in the treatment of breast cancer. However, SLNB has a number of limitations, and we believe that alternative strategies for staging of the axilla should be explored. The hypothesis of this proposal is that the combination of preoperative high-resolution axillary ultrasound (AUS), fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB), and molecular analysis using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) represents a viable, minimally invasive alternative to SLNB. We propose a prospective cohort study to rigorously assess the diagnostic accuracy of molecular analysis of AUS-FNAB specimens. The primary endpoint of this study is to determine the feasibility of AUS-FNAB and real-time RT-PCR to predict the pathologic status of the axilla in a proof-of-principle study. In the short term, validation of this innovative strategy is likely to reduce the number of sentinel node procedures. In the long term, we believe that AUS-FNAB may ultimately replace SLNB.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT00360152
Run by
Washington University School of Medicine
People needed
100
Starts
2006-08-01
Expected to finish
2013-04-01
Last updated by the study team
2013-07-04

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: female. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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