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Article: Sentinel node biopsy raises hope in treating breast cancer.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- August 25, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ When Brenda Maloney found a lump in her breast last March, she had many choices to make.
After some research, she chose Charlotte surgeon Peter Turk and decided on a mastectomy.
Then Turk offered still another option.
He could perform the traditional operation _ removing her breast and a dozen or so underarm lymph nodes. Or he could enroll her in a study of a new procedure that might eliminate the need for taking most of her nodes.
The technique, called sentinel node biopsy, is based on the idea that if breast cancer spreads, it will spread to a few key lymph nodes first. The belief is that if these sentinel nodes are ...