title: Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy in primary cutaneous melanoma.
abstract: The management of clinically normal regional lymph nodes in early-stage melanoma has been controversial for over a century. Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy (LM/SL) has been developed as a minimally invasive surgical technique to stage the regional lymph nodes without the associated morbidity of elective complete lymph node dissection. Multiple retrospective studies have validated the accuracy of LM/SL and the importance of the sentinel nodes as a staging tool for melanoma. Two multicenter, prospective, randomized trials have been performed to validate the data from the Phase II studies and determine if a therapeutic benefit exists for LM/SL.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Surgical Oncology and Molecular Therapeutics, California Oncology Research Institute, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Essner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision / Q000639:trends*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000639:trends; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery