Sentinel node biopsy is routinely used for people with:
Breast cancer
Melanoma
Sentinel node biopsy is being studied for use with other types of cancer, such as:
Colon cancer
Esophageal cancer
Head and neck cancer
Non-small cell lung cancer
Stomach cancer
Thyroid cancer
And all of these proses we can do it with gamma probe.
A gamma probe is a handheld device containing a scintillation counter, for intraoperative use following injection of a radionuclide, to locate sentinel lymph nodes by their radioactivity. It is used primarily for sentinel lymph node mapping and parathyroid surgery. Gamma probes are also used for RSL (radioactive seed localization), to locate small and non-palpable breast lesions
To locate the draining lymph nodes or sentinel lymph node from a breast cancer tumor a Technetium-99m based radiopharmaceutical is common. This may be a nanocolloid or sestamibi. Although imaging with a gamma camera may also take place, the idea of a small gamma probe is that it can be used to identify lymph nodes (or other sites) with uptake at a much higher resolution, during an operation. The probe may be collimated to further restrict the field of detection.