Surgery for Melanoma -SLN Biopsy Discussion

Thuy Tran, MD
Assistant Professor, Surgery
School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine
Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is commonly used by surgeons who treat melanoma in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe and has been endorsed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) as a valuable staging procedure for patients with melanoma who are at risk of clinically occult nodal metastases. This highly accurate and low-morbidity staging procedure should be used to guide treatment decisions (ie, completion lymph node dissection [CLND] and adjuvant therapy) as well as entry into clinical trials.