Lessons learned from two decades of sentinel node biopsies for melanoma.
8055 Background: The long term prognosis for patients with melanoma staged by sentinel node biopsy (SNB) remains unclear, largely due to limited follow-up from a variety of small single institution studies. We evaluated our extensive 20-year experience to evaluate the long term prognostic significance of SNB. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 2001 successive patients who underwent LM/SNB at our center from 1985 until 2004. After preoperative lymphoscintigraphy, blue dye and a hand-held gamma probe were used for intraoperative identification of sentinel nodes (SN). SN were evaluated for metastases by hemotoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemical staining with HMB45, S-100, and more recently with antibodies to melanA. Patients with tumor-positive SN underwent completion dissection (SCLND). Clinicopathological features of the patients, primaries and SN status were evaluated for their influence on survival using multivariate Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: After median follow-up of 49 months (range 1-237). Median age for our patients was 51 years (range 10-91). Of the 2,001 patients, 1584 (79%) had tumor-negative and 417 (21%) had tumor-positive SN. Survival rates were higher in patients with tumor-negative vs. tumor-positive SN (91 + 2% vs. 72 + 5% at 5 years, log-rank p<0.0001; and 84 + 3% vs. 64 + 7% at 10 years, log-rank p<0.0001). Of the 417 patients with SN metastases, 293 (70%) had a single tumor-positive node, 101 (24%) had 2-3 positive nodes, and 25 (6%) had at least 4 positive nodes (sentinel plus nonsentinel). Overall survival was significantly better when metastases were confined to single vs. multiple nodes (77 + 3% vs. 63 + 5%; p=0.0017). Multivariate analysis with Cox regression identified SN status (p<0.0001) as the most important prognostic factor, Hazard Ratio 3.44 (2.47-4.79). Breslow thickness (p<0.0001) and ulceration (p=0.0001) are also independently significant for survival. Gender and primary site were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the long term prognostic significance of SN status. LM/SNB should become standard of care for primary melanoma because it is the most accurate factor for the quantification of the risk for recurrence and death available. No significant financial relationships to disclose.
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- Oncology & Carcinogenesis
- 1112 Oncology and Carcinogenesis
- 1103 Clinical Sciences
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Published In
EISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Location
Related Subject Headings
- Oncology & Carcinogenesis
- 1112 Oncology and Carcinogenesis
- 1103 Clinical Sciences