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SEER Inquiry System - Report
Produced: 09/22/2026 11:38 AM
Question 20190074
Inquiry Details
References:
2018 SEER Manual, 166. Scope of Regional Lymph Node Surgery
Question:
First course treatment/Scope of Reg LN Surgery--Breast: How is Scope of Regional Lymph Node Surgery coded when there is a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNBx) and intra-mammary nodes removed for a single primary? See Discussion.
Discussion:
Example: Operative report documents a left breast skin sparing mastectomy and sentinel node biopsy procedure. Pathology report lists left axillary sentinel nodes in specimen A) with 0/2 nodes positive, and left breast mastectomy without axilla in specimen B) yielding an additional 0/2 intramammary nodes positive. Would the Scope of Regional Node Surgery be coded as 2 (SLN biopsy) to capture the intent of the sentinel node procedure only, or 6 (code 2 + 4) to capture the actual type and number of nodes removed?
SEER Coding and Staging Manual includes Scope of Regional Lymph Node Surgery instruction 4.b. which mentions assigning code 4 to intra-organ node removal. Similarly, there is instruction for coding SLN biopsy as code 2 and SLN biopsy with axillary dissection at the same time (code 6) or during separate procedures (code 7). However, it is not clear this combination code is how we should also capture an incidental intra-organ node removal.
Answer:
Revised answer 07/11/2023
Assign code 6, Sentinel node biopsy and code 3, 4, or 5 at same time or timing not noted. There were two sentinel lymph nodes removed (code 2) plus two intramammary nodes removed in a separate specimen from the mastectomy (code 4). Assign code 6 when nodes are removed from a sentinel lymph node procedure at the same time as removal of intra-organ lymph nodes which were not part of the sentinel lymph node procedure.
History:
Assign code 2, sentinel lymph node biopsy (only) as the additional nodes were discovered incidentally, rather than through a lymph node dissection. See the Note under coding instruction #8 on page 166 of the 2018 SEER manual, https://seer.cancer.gov/manuals/2018/SPCSM_2018_maindoc.pdf
When a sentinel lymph node biopsy is performed, additional non-sentinel nodes can be taken during the same operative procedure. These additional non-sentinel nodes may be discovered by the pathologist or selectively removed (or harvested) as part of the SLNBx procedure by the surgeon. Code this as a SLNBx (code 2). Code 4 is more applicable when no SLNBx is performed.
