• Matthew P Doepker, Zachary J Thompson, Jennifer N Harb, Jane L Messina, Christopher A Puleo, Kathleen M Egan, Amod A Sarnaik, Ricardo J Gonzalez, Vernon K Sondak, and Jonathan S Zager.
• Department of Cutaneous Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida.
• J Surg Oncol. 2016 Jan 1; 113 (1): 98-102.

IntroductionHistorically dermal melanoma (DM) has been labeled as either stage IIIB (in-transit) or stage IV (M1a) disease. We sought to investigate the natural history of DM and the utility and prognostic significance of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB).MethodsPatients with DM undergoing SLNB at a single center from 1998 to 2009 were identified.ResultsEighty-three patients met criteria, 10 (12%) patients had a positive SLNB. Of those, 5 (50%) recurred (all with distant disease). Twenty-one (29%) of the 73 SLNB negative patients recurred and of those, 15 (71%) developed distant metastases, whereas 6 (29%) developed local or regional recurrence, including two false-negative regional nodal recurrences. No in-transit recurrences were recorded. Five-year recurrence-free and disease-specific survival was significantly better for patients with a negative SLNB versus positive SLNB (56.8% vs. 22.2% P = 0.02, 81.1% vs. 61.0%, P = 0.05, respectively).ConclusionSLNB has prognostic significance for RFS and DSS, and should be utilized in the management of DM based on a >10% yield and low false-negative rate. Our data demonstrate patients with DM do not recur in an in-transit fashion, which along with the survival outcomes suggest the behavior of DM is consistent with primary cutaneous melanoma of similar thickness rather than an isolated in-transit or distant dermal metastasis from a regressed cutaneous primary.© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

32 keywords...

hide…