Boada A et al. -The clinical value of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in thick melanoma patients (Breslow >4 mm) has not been established. The current study determined whether or not SLN biopsy increases survival in patients with thick cutaneous melanomas and the correlation between survival and lymph node status. It was shown that SLN biopsy is associated with better disease-free survival (DFS), but not MSS in thick melanoma patients.

Methods

• 1211 patients with thick melanomas (>4 mm) were studied.
• The nedian follow-up was 40 months.
• 752 patients were matched into pairs by propensity scores based on gender, age, tumor location, histologic features of melanoma, year of diagnosis, hospital, and adjuvant interferon therapy.

Results

• The SLN biopsy was associated with better DFS (aHR = 0.74) and OS (aHR = 0.75) than observation.
• The SLN biopsy was not associated with better MSS (aHR = 0.84) than observation.
• SLN-negative patients had better 5- and 10-year MSS compared to SLN-positive patients (65.4% vs. 51.9% and 48.3% vs. 38.8%, respectively).