Here's a quote from Stedman's Electronic Dictionary that should help:
quote:
sentinel lymph nodethe first lymph node to receive lymphatic drainage from a malignant tumor; the sentinel node is identified as the first to take up a radionuclide or dye injected into the tumor; increasingly used in operations for melanoma and breast cancer; if the sentinel node is free of metastasis, more distal nodes are also free. See Also: signal lymph node. Syn: sentinel node.
