The Role of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy of Malignant Melanoma

The sentinel lymph node biopsy is regarded as a reliable staging method and should be performed with patients with a malignant melanoma starting from a tumour thickness of 1 mm onwards. The relapse-free survival time of the patients with a melanoma clearly correlates with the status of the sentinel lymph node (SLN). It has been shown in numerous clinical studies that the SLN holds an important diagnostic and prognostic significance for patients with primary cutaneous melanoma. A therapeutical value of the SLN biopsy could not be confirmed so far, so that in case of the positiveness of the SLN the elective dissection of a lymph node still has to be recommended.