Talk Cancer

Question:

Asking again just what sentinel  is – sorry I am so dumb.

Response:

Asking again just what sentinel  is – sorry I am so dumb.

A sentinel node is the lymph node through which lymph passes from a tumor back to the lymph channels leading to the heart.  They now inject a tracer material near the tumor and see which node it goes to, then take just one or a few nodes from that region.  It is called a sentinel node because it is the first guard point filtering cancer cells that might escape into the lymphatics.  The old method took a large number of nodes, which more often resulted in swelling of the arm, called lymphedema.  The sentinel node technique is fairly new, being in common use less than ten years.

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