Risk Stratification for SLNB in Melanoma

Although prophylactic lymph node dissections do not improve survival, the prognostic implications of a positive sentinel node and the benefits of removing nodal metastases for loco-regional disease control remain important. There is a strong interest in novel approaches that can improve patients’ selection for sentinel lymphnode biopsies(SLNB) given that 85% of these procedures are negative and non-therapeutic. The host discusses with Dr. Alexander Meves his recent review in Modern Pathology on the role of gene expression profiling in this setting when combined with clinicopathologic parameters.