The usefulness of sentinel lymph node detection in vulvar cancer - a short communication

BACKGROUND: The sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is a solution for decreasing the extent of surgery with a significant reduction of the incidence of complications without influencing treatment results. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed the sentinel lymph node procedure in 24 women with vulvar cancer. In 14 cases, only the blue dye technique was applied, and in 10 cases 99mTc-labelled nanocolloid with blue dye was administered simultaneously. The extent of the surgery included radical vulvectomy in 23 patients and a wide local excision in 1 patient. In 15 patients unilateral inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy was performed and in 9 cases bilateral lymphadenectomy. The total number of operated groins was 39. RESULTS: SLNs were detected in 34/39 of operated groins (87.2%). In 4 cases (16.6%) tumour metastases to the lymph nodes were found. In total, 10 metastatic lymph nodes were detected in 9 sentinel-nodes and in 1 non-sentinel node. In three patients the nodal metastases were found only in the sentinel nodes. In one patient the metastases were found in the contral-ateral groin in two SLNs. There were no false nega-tive sentinel lymph nodes. With the sole use of blue dye, SLNs were found in 79.5% of groins. The additional administration of the radiocolloid improved SLN detection to 88.9% of groins. CONCLUSIONS: The parallel use of the 99mTc labelled radiocolloid and blue dye enables high sentinel node detection rates by adequately trained surgeons.