Previous studies have shown that solid tumors, such as breast cancer and melanoma, use the lymphatic system to spread to other parts of the body, including some regional sentinel nodes. Identifying how far those tumors have spread and what nodes are affected can help identify how extensive the treatment needs to be and can potentially limit the number of nodes that need to be removed.

"Our goal as surgeons is to remove only those nodes we need to and to avoid removing those not showing any signs of cancer," says Dr. Leong. "Lymphoseek seems to be more accurate at giving us this information than other mapping methods and that can hopefully help patients avoid unnecessary surgery."

Existing methods for mapping the spread of these tumors are relatively accurate but are all "off label" in that they have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for that use. Neoprobe is hoping that this trial will enable it to move forward in applying for FDA approval for Lymphoseek as the first tracing agent specifically radio-labeled for lymph node detection.

Source: Annals of Surgical Oncology