Survey on Usage of Dye Pharmaceutical Preparations in Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has recently been accepted as a standard diagnostic procedure in the treatment of early breast cancer.However,since there are no dyes for this diagnostic technique on the market in Japan,we conducted a survey of the situation of dye use and preparations for SLNB in regional cancer treatment centers.We sent a questionnaire to 286 institutions for which the response rate was 75.2%.The results showed that 80.9% of the institutions had already introduced SLNB and the dye-guided method was used by more than 90% of them.The most common indication for SLNB was breast cancer.Patent blue prepared by hospitals and indigo carmine and indocyanine green (both off-label use) were commonly used dye preparations for SLNB.Although patent blue is the most satisfactory dye and has the highest identification rate,problems were reported with hospital preparations.There were also differences between institutions regarding storage conditions,validity dates,preparation standards and annual use of this dye.The survey also revealed that 74.4% of institutions wanted dyes for SLNB to be marketed and there were numerous opinions on which types of patent blue preparation should be available.In conclusion,the present study indicated that there was a need for SNLB dye preparationsinclinicalpracticeandthatitwould be beneficial to make such preparations available on the market.