Correlation of Tumor Burden in Sentinel Lymph Nodes with Tumor Burden in Nonsentinel Lymph Nodes and Survival in Cutaneous Melanoma

摘要

Purpose: In patients with cutaneous melanoma, metastasis in a nonsentinel lymph node (non-SLN) is a strong independent adverse prognostic factor. However, patients with a tumor-involved SLN no longer routinely undergo completion lymph node dissection (CLND). We hypothesized that SLN tumor burden may predict non-SLN tumor burden.