Sentinel lymph node procedure in the era of new melanoma therapies
Menée à partir d'une revue systématique de la littérature publiée jusqu'en janvier 2025 (13 études incluant au total 40 287 participants), cette méta-analyse évalue le bénéfice en termes de survie d'une biopsie du ganglion sentinelle chez les patients atteints d'un mélanome
Since 1992, the surgical treatment for melanoma has substantially changed,1 and in clinically negative nodal basin, elective lymph node dissection has been overtaken by the sentinel node biopsy (SNB) followed by complete lymph node dissection in the case of positivity to SNB at the histopathological report. Many different studies have examined these methods, looking at specific subclinical features such as micro-metastases or macro-metastases,2 SNB tumour burden,3 number of SNBs, number of positive non-sentinel lymph nodes, and number of excised non-sentinel lymph nodes.4 SNB followed by complete lymph node dissection is the standard of care in melanoma; however, two randomised clinical trials (MSLT-II5 and DeCOG6) have shown no increase in survival in individuals undergoing SNB and, in the case of positivity, complete lymph node dissection, compared with SNB alone.
The Lancet Oncology , commentaire, 2026