TITLE:
The Prognostic Value of Minimally Involved Melanoma Sentinel Lymph Nodes
AUTHORS:
Alend Saadi, Didier Roulin, Essia Saiji, Hanifa Bouzourene, Nicolas Demartines, Maurice Matter
KEYWORDS:
Metastatic Melanoma; Sentinel Node; Minimally Involved
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.4 No.10,
December
25,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Background: Sentinel node (SLN)
status is the most important prognostic factor for early-stage melanoma
patients. It will influence follow-up and may change therapy. Positive SLNs
present different degrees of involvement so that subgroups of patients may have
minimal SLN invasion. The aim of this study was to evaluate survival in
subgroups with minimally involved SLNs and to
compare them to negative SLN patients. Method: SLN biopsy was performed in 499 consecutive clinically N0 patients between 1997
and 2008. Following updated recommendations from the Melanoma Group of the
European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer, degrees of SLN
involvement were fully reassessed for two anatomopathological parameters:
tumour burden according to Rotterdam criteria (1.0 mm) and
microanatomic location according to Dewar (subcapsular, combined subcapsular
and parenchymal, parenchymal, multifocal, or extensive). Minimally involved
SLNs were defined as those with tumor burden Results: Out of 499 clinically N0
patients, positive SLNs were found in 123 patients (24.7 percent). With a median follow-up of 52 months (range: 9 - 146), five-year disease-free (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) were 88.1,
93.9 and 89.9 percent for negative SLN patients, respectively. In minimally involved SLNs, there were 21 with tumour burden Conclusion: Rotterdam’s tumour burden stratification is an
easy and useful prognostic factor of melanoma survival. There was a trend showing that
patients with SLN tumour burden