SENTINUS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
SENTINUS: Technical feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of intradermal microbubbles and contrast enhanced ultrasound to identify sentinel lymph node metastases in breast cancer patients following training and mentorship of imaging specialists
IRAS ID
274252
Contact name
Karina Cox
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Eudract number
2020-000819-67
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN10259902
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 26 days
Research summary
Around 46,000 people are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every year in the UK. As well as removing the
tumour in the breast, they are advised to have some or all of their lymph nodes removed from the armpit. As
most patients have early stage breast cancer, about 70% will not have cancer deposits in the lymph nodes.
Therefore, many patients risk the potential complications from armpit surgery such as infection, bleeding and
fluid collection as well as arm swelling, loss of sensation or sometimes pain down the arm, for no benefit. There
is already a lot of effort to reduce armpit surgery and better use of ultrasound may help to identify patients who
don’t need this surgery at all.
We are planning to train specialists from five hospitals to perform a special ultrasound technique, which uses
microbubbles injected into the breast that can be seen with the ultrasound and followed into the armpit to find the sentinel (or key) lymph nodes. The specialist can then take a needle biopsy to see if the sentinel lymph nodes
contain cancer deposits. It is important to prove that local specialists can easily and reliably perform the
microbubbles procedure in the breast clinic. If this research is successful, the plan is to run a larger study to
make sure that replacing armpit surgery with the microbubbles procedure is safe and doesn’t increase the risk of
cancer coming back more than the present surgery to the armpit.REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0833
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion