The Medical College of Georgia uses a new tool to examine half of the tissue in the sentinel lymph node where breast cancer usually starts to spread. This tool is called the GeneSearch Breast Lymph Node Assay, manufactured by Veridex, L.L.C.
Traditional sentinel node biopsy examines a node that has been cut to wafer thin slices, have it frozen and stained before looking for cancer cells under a microscope. With GeneSearch, the tissue is examined with molecular diagnostic methods, which is more sensitive. The test looks for excessive amounts of mamoglobin and cytikeratin 19, genes that are more expressed in breast cancer tissues. This reduces the incident of false negative test results.
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