I have breast cancer, can i do a sentinal lymph node biopsy before i decide on which procedure to do (lumpectomy or mastectomy)?

Yes: In fact, that is exactly what some women do before starting pre-operative chemotherapy. First, they have their sentinel node biopsy, then they have their chemotherapy and finally they have their surgery, either lumpectomy or mastectomy.

Dr Lewis and another doctor agreed

Sentinel Lymph Node: It doesn't make much sense to do a sentinel lymph node biopsy before surgery. The sentinel lymph node biopsy is done at the same time as your surgery in order to stage the tumor. The top priority here is to get your tumor out. Hopefully your surgeon would have explained to you that there is no difference in survival or cancer recurrence whether you choose mastectomy or lumpectomy as your treatment.

Dr Hampton agreed

Yes: It is possible to do the sentinel lymph node prior.

Yes: Sentinel node biopsy can be done prior to breast surgery for a variety if reasons, such as before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (to stage patients). Before mastectomy (to determine if radiation is needed or reconstruction can be done), etc. It is not commonly done to help decide between lumpectomy and mastectomy, so it is important to review how the sln results would impact your decision.