Real-Time Fluorescent Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping with Indocyanine Green in Women with Previous Conization Undergoing Laparoscopic Surgery for Early Invasive Cervical Cancer: Comparison with Radiotracer ± Blue Dye.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the added value of the fluorescence dye indocyanine green (ICG) for sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping in women with cervical cancer who had undergone previous conization (stage 1A-1B1) by comparing ICG versus Tc99m radiotracer + blue dye (BD).

DESIGN: Retrospective study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).

SETTING: Two European academic medical centers, San Gerardo Hospital, Italy and University of Berne, Switzerland.

PATIENTS: Sixty-five women with early stage (IA-IB1) cervical cancer who had undergone previous conization and who underwent SLN mapping with Tc99m  ± BD (n = 23) or ICG (n = 42) followed by pelvic lymphadenectomy and fertility-sparing surgery or hysterectomy were included in this analysis.

INTERVENTION: Overall detection rate and bilateral SLN mapping rates of ICG were compared with those obtained using the standard Tc99m radiocolloid and BD.

MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Overall, 220 SLNs were detected. The median number of SLNs per patient in the Tc99m  ± BD group was 2 (range, 1-5) and in the ICG group, 3 (range, 2-15). The detection rate of SLNs was 95.7% in Tc99m  ± BD group and 100% in the ICG group (p = .354). The women injected with ICG had a higher rate of bilateral mapping of the SLNs as compared with the Tc99m  ± BD group (95.2% vs 69.6%, p = .016%). Only 12% of the patients (8/65) presented metastatic nodes, 2 in the Tc99m  ± BD group and 6 in the ICG group.

CONCLUSION: In early-stage cervical cancer patients conization had no significant impact on the SLN detection rate using both techniques (ICG and radiotracer ± BD). In this scenario a higher bilateral mapping rate was confirmed using the fluorescent dye ICG rather than the standard techniques.