Predicting residual lymph node basin disease in melanoma patients with sentinel lymph node metastases.
BACKGROUND
The incidence of residual occult disease in nonsentinel lymph nodes (NSLN) after a positive sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in patients with melanoma is relatively low. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that may be predictive of occult NSLN metastases after positive SLN biopsy.


METHODS
Fifty-six consecutive melanoma patients with positive sentinel nodes who subsequently underwent complete lymph node dissection (CLND) were evaluated.


RESULTS
Only the number of positive SLN predicted the status on NSLN by univariate (P = 0.008) and multivariate (P = 0.028) analyses. None of the other variables (characteristics of SLN metastases, number of draining nodal basins, age, sex, thickness, Clark level, ulceration, number of mitoses/mm(2), histological subtype, and location of the primary) significantly predicted CLND results.


CONCLUSIONS
Identifying patients with residual lymph node basin disease remains difficult. Thus, lymph node dissection should be performed in all patients after positive sentinel node biopsy.
Salti
George I
GI
University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Department of Surgical Oncology (M/C 820), 840 South Wood St., Chicago, IL 60612, USA. geosalti@uic.edu
Das Gupta
Tapas K
TK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*