Secondary partial mastectomy with contralateral sentinel lymph node biopsy for ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence after conservative surgery: Report of 2 cases

Mastectomy has been known to be the best strategy for treating in patients with ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence (IBCR) after conservative surgery. For the cases with a small recurrent cancer which is found in the majority of cases on the regular check-up, the patients' desire for breast conserving surgery is increasing. Some recent studies have reported patients with IBCR might receive a second partial mastectomy, when a good local control can be predicted. It is not obvious that sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in the treated breast is feasible because the previous axillary dissection and/or irradiation may affected the pattern of lymphatic flow. Because of its high accuracy, SLNB may be safely performed for the patients with IBCR in the treated breast. Interestingly, there are reports that SLNB in this condition has revealed that the sentinel lymph node(s) can be found in the opposite side. We reported two cases in which contralateral SLNB were performed during the secondary partial mastectomy for the IBCR after breast conserving surgery.