SKIMS Conducts Sentinal Lymphnode Scintigraphy in breast cancer patients”

The Department of Nuclear Medicine SKIMS  conducted  first case of Sentinal Lymphnode Scintigraphy  in breast cancer patients today  which will be taken for  Sentinal Lymphnode (SLN) biopsy by department of surgical oncology. This is another major milestone  achieved by the department  benefitting cancer patients.

Head of the Department Dr Tanvir  Ahmad informed that patients of breast cancer, tongue cancer and melanoma are going to get benefitted from this procedure.  The procedure is first of its kind available to the patients of the UT J& K and will go a long way in improving the treatment of cancer patients. He explained that the Lymphoscintigraphy (sentinel lymph node mapping) is an imaging technique that is used to identify the lymph drainage basin, determine the number of sentinel nodes, differentiate sentinel nodes from subsequent nodes, locate the sentinel node in an unexpected location, and mark the sentinel node over the skin for biopsy.

Director SKIMS Prof. Parvaiz A. Koul complimented the department for conducting the procedure and said  that advanced  procedure will help poor patients which will be conducted now routinely at SKIMS . The patients had to go  outside for such procedures facing lot of inconvenience and incurring lot of expenditures, the procedure now available at SKIMS will facilitate such patients, he added.