論説
センチネルリンパ節研究の現状と展望
2019 年 112 巻 4 号 p. 205-214
詳細
2019 年 112 巻 4 号 p. 205-214
Sentinel lymph node (SN) biopsy for head and neck cancer has already been recognized as a standard procedure in Europe and the United States. In Japan, it has only been described in the Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Head and Neck Cancer (2018), and should be regarded as a standard procedure to be covered by insurance in the future. For this purpose, the results of the multicenter phase III trial on SN biopsy for oral cancer as a part of the “Cancer Clinical Research Project” (director Yasuhisa Hasegawa), supported by the Health Labor Sciences Research Grant, will be published in the near future.
The SN forms a microenvironment susceptible to metastasis due to the effects of vascular/lymphangiogenic and immune factors secreted by primary tumors. Therefore, basic research on the SN is significant for elucidating the mechanism of lymph node metastasis. In the future, clinical and basic research on the SN will be simultaneously conducted.
