[Comment] Sentinel lymph node procedure in the era of new melanoma therapies
Summary
Since 1992, the surgical treatment for melanoma has substantially changed,1 and in clinically negative nodal basin, elective lymph node dissection has been overtaken by the sentinel node biopsy (SNB) followed by complete lymph node dissection in the case of positivity to SNB at the histopathological report. Many different studies have examined these methods, looking at specific subclinical features such as micro-met…
Since 1992, the surgical treatment for melanoma has substantially changed,1 and in clinically negative nodal basin, elective lymph node dissection has been overtaken by the sentinel node biopsy (SNB) followed by complete lymph node dissection in the case of positivity to SNB at the histopathological report. Many different studies have examined these methods, looking at specific subclinical features such as micro-metastases or macro-metastases,2 SNB tumour burden,3 number of SNBs, number of positive non-sentinel lymph nodes, and number of excised non-sentinel lymph nodes.