title: Sentinel lymph node biopsy in cutaneous melanoma.
abstract: The management of melanoma is constantly evolving. New therapies and surgical advances have changed the landscape over the last years. Since being introduced by Dr Donald Morton, the role of sentinel lymph node has been debated. In many melanoma centers, sentinel node biopsy is not a standard of care for melanoma above 1 mm in thickness. The results of the MSLT-II Trial are not available for a while and in the meantime, this procedure is offered as a prognostic indicator as it has been shown to be very useful for assessing risk of relapse. The biology of lymph node spread in melanoma is a complex field and there are many factors which influence it such as age, melanoma body site, thickness but other factors such as regression, ulceration and gender need further evaluation. In this review, we address the clinical value of sentinel lymph node biopsy and how its indication has changed over the years especially recently with the setup of many adjuvant trials which are offered to stage 3 melanomas.
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatologic Surgery, Department of Oncology, Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino Hospital, Turin, Italy - Simone.ribero@unito.it.|Section of Dermatology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin Italy - Simone.ribero@unito.it.|Department of Twins Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK - Simone.ribero@unito.it.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ribero
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatologic Surgery, Department of Oncology, Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino Hospital, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sportoletti Baduel
authors.affiliation: Section of Surgical Pathology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Osella-Abate
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Department, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Emi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dika
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin Italy.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quaglino
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatologic Surgery, Department of Oncology, Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino Hospital, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Picciotto
authors.affiliation: Section of Dermatologic Surgery, Department of Oncology, Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino Hospital, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Macripò
authors.affiliation: Department of Twins Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Veronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bataille
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000379:methods*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*