Sentinel lymph-node biopsy is an accurate staging procedure for patients with melanoma. However, this procedure followed by immediate completion lymph-node dissection (CLND) does not seem to improve survival, based on data from the MSLT-1 randomized trial. Patients with micrometastases <0.1 mm have a similar clinical course to sentinel-node-negative patients and routine CLND may not be indicated in these patients. The authors discuss the issue of prognostic false positivity and explain how the Rotterdam Criteria could be useful for the measurement of sentinel node tumor burden.
- Alexander C. J. van Akkooi
- Cornelis Verhoef
- Alexander M. M. Eggermont
