Aims: To compare enhanced pathology with serial sectioning and the transcription-reverse transcription concerted reaction (TRC) for detecting sentinel node (SN) metastasis in breast cancer cases.
Methods: In total, 115 SN samples from 32 breast cancer cases were investigated by pathological examination with 2.0-mm serial sectioning and by quantitative analysis of carcinoembryonic antigen messenger RNA with the TRC.
Results: The results were concordant in 98.3% of these cases. Two histologically metastatic nodes tested negative by TRC, whereas none tested positive by TRC alone.
Conclusion: Pathological examination with 2-mm sectioning showed superior performance to TRC under the study conditions.