The sentinel lymph node biopsy for breast cancer over the years.

The sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has progressively substituted complete axillary lymph node dissection (CALND), and has dramatically changed breast surgery impact on women's psychophysical wellness, reducing surgical morbidity while granting an adequate nodal staging. The present authors have seen a gradual improvement in the technique in order to reduce both surgical time and the number of interventions required, in particular with the intraoperative histological examination of sentinel node. Anyway, there is still great debate about the predictability of axillary nodal status in case of negative SLNB, as well as in case of positive one. Therefore, the authors reviewed the SLNB history and discussed its controversial points.