Breast Cancer
About 75% of lymph from the breasts drains into the axillary lymph nodes, making them important in the diagnosis of breast cancer. A doctor will usually refer a patient to a surgeon to have an axillary lymph node dissection to see if the cancer cells have been trapped in the nodes. If cancer cells are found in the nodes it increases the risk of metastatic breast cancer. Another method of determining breast cancer spread is to perform an endoscopic axillary sentinel node biopsy. This involves injecting a dye into the breast lump and seeing which node it first spread to (the sentinal node). This node is then removed and examined. If there is no cancer present, it is assumed the cancer has not spread. This procedure is often less invasive and less damaging than the axillary lymph node dissection.
Axillary lymph nodes are also heavily irradiated in radiation therapy, causing damage to the brachial plexus (which sites in that area). This can cause nerve damage that may not manifest itself until 10 or 15 years later. However this is still an accepted consequence of eliminating breast cancer.
Read more about this topic: Axillary Lymph Nodes
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