Abstract
We report here our experience in treating squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) at Department of Dermatology, Fujita Health University Hospital. This study was carried out in the period from July of 2002 until June of 2005. The sentinel node biopsy (SNB) was performed on nine patients. Through a combination of the dye method, pre-operative scintigraphy and the use of a gamma probe during surgery, the sentinel node (SN) was conclusively (100%) identified. The SN was found to have cancer cells in only one patient. In this patient, the other lesional lymph nodes were dissected. There were no traces of cancer cells in the dissected lymph nodes. In the other eight patients, the SN was found to be free of cancer cells so the dissection of the other lymph nodes was not deemed necessary. There was no incidence of recurrence and metastasis in any of the nine patients (1～31 months : average 15.8 month)．Recently, many research papers have focused on the study of malignant melanoma, but there have been few studies conducted on the SNB of SCC. Because of this, we think that it is important for us to establish guidelines for the SNB of SCC to create a uniform standard.
