OBJECTIVE:

To describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, surgical technique, and prognostic factors of the sentinel lymph node technique in breast cancer in a referral center.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Retrospective, analytical study, with secondary sources of information of women with breast cancer without clinical axillary involvement, taken to surgery with sentinel node biopsy, in the personal registry of a surgeon from May 1, 2018, to October 31, 2020, in a referral center in Medellin, Colombia. Demographic, clinical and paraclinical data were collected and analyzed with descriptive statistics.

RESULTS:

552 axillary surgeries were performed, 353 sentinel node biopsies (63.9 %) and 199 lymphadenectomies (36%). The mean age was 60 years (SD ± 12.6). Clinical stage 0-I-II was 86.1%. The mean tumor size was 2.6 cm. The sentinel node detection rate was 98.3% (n = 347). On average 1.9 nodes were resected (SD ± 1.3) of which 23.1% (n = 80) were metastatic. Axillary emptying was avoided in 83.6% (n = 295).

CONCLUSION:

In this sample, the sentinel node technique for axillary staging had a high detection rate, with greater sentinel node involvement found during mastectomy, freezing, luminal subtypes A and B and in a lower proportion in preparative chemotherapy.