title: Sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma: aspects of pathologic assessment.
abstract: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy affords an accurate, minimally invasive means of staging and determining prognosis in patients with melanoma and for identifying those patients who may benefit from complete regional lymph node dissection. Careful and accurate histopathologic assessment of SLNs is critical to achieving optimal reliability of the technique. Micromorphometric parameters of melanoma deposits in SLNs have been shown to be predictive of regional non-SLN involvement and of clinical outcomes. Several non-histopathologic methods of SLN evaluation have been investigated, and while some of them show promise for the future, excision and histopathologic examination currently remains the gold standard for the evaluation of SLNs.
authors.affiliation: Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Department of Anatomical Pathology, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia.
authors.forename: Rajmohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Murali
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Scolyer
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D005544:Forecasting; D005629:Frozen Sections; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008545:Melanoma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor