Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has become the preferred method of surgical pathological nodal staging of early breast cancer by the end of the nineties. As the most likely sites of metastasis, the SLNs allow a more precise staging, and indeed gross sectioning, step sectioning, immunohistochemistry, and molecular staging methods have been used to disclose metastatic involvement of these lymph nodes. This review summarizes the backgrounds of SLNB, trends in related surgery and pathology. It also gives an insight into European National recommendations related to SLN and divergent daily practices in European pathology departments, on the basis of replies to questionnaires from 84 pathologists from 38 European countries. The questionnaires revealed the post-neoadjuvant setting as an area where a significant minority of pathologists report less confidence in classifying residual nodal involvement into TNM categories. The review also summarizes the neoadjuvant therapy-related aspects of SLNB.

到九十年代末，前哨淋巴结活检（SLNB）已成为早期乳腺癌手术病理淋巴结分期的首选方法。作为最可能的转移部位，SLN 可以进行更精确的分期，实际上，大体切片、阶梯切片、免疫组织化学和分子分期方法已被用于揭示这些淋巴结的转移受累情况。这篇综述总结了SLNB的背景、相关手术和病理学的趋势。它还根据对来自 38 个欧洲国家的 84 名病理学家的问卷答复，深入了解了与 SLN 相关的欧洲国家建议和欧洲病理学部门的不同日常实践。问卷显示，在新辅助治疗后环境中，少数病理学家报告对将残余淋巴结受累分类为 TNM 类别的信心不足。该评价还总结了 SLNB 的新辅助治疗相关方面。