Study description
This single‑center experience from the Medical University of Innsbruck evaluated the use of Pintuition® surgical marker navigation for targeted axillary dissection following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. In a cohort of 20 patients with biopsy‑proven node‑positive disease, Pintuition® enabled reliable identification and retrieval of the target lymph node in all cases, including when the target node differed from the sentinel node. The study demonstrates that surgical marker navigation is a feasible, safe, and effective alternative to wire‑guided techniques for axillary staging after systemic treatment.
Key messages
- 100% target lymph node identification achieved at surgery using Pintuition® after neoadjuvant chemotherapy
- Reliable surgical marker navigation when the target node is not the sentinel node, observed in 30% of cases (44% with residual disease)
- Safe and feasible technique, with no complications related to marker placement or navigation reported
- Wire‑free, non‑radioactive workflow, enabling flexible scheduling and eliminating same‑day wire localization