Abstract
The role of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) remains unclear. To evaluate its contribution, we retrospectively studied 33 patients with clinical N0 cSCC who underwent SLN biopsies between April 2003 and August 2009. SLN metastasis was confirmed in 6 of the 33 patients. These 6 patients subsequently underwent regional lymph node dissection and did not develop distant metastasis in the follow-up period. The SLN metastasis positive and false negative were 18 and 3%, respectively. Five-year survival rate in patients with SLN metastasis was 100%. Our findings suggest that SLN biopsy provides a technique to identify patients with subclinical nodal metastasis whose survival may be prolonged by immediate lymph node dissection. A randomized controlled trial is needed to demonstrate whether early detection of subclinical nodal metastasis improves the disease-free or overall survival in patients with high-risk cSCC.
