A Practical Update of Surgical Management of Merkel Cell Carcinoma of the Skin
Table 7
Summary of important series of sentinel node biopsy (SLNB).
Institute
Number of patients
Important results/conclusions
Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Koljonen et al. [10]
15 patients
(i) False-negative lymph nodes were found in 30% of the patients. Immunohistochemical reevaluation decreased this figure to 22%. Therefore for MCC, false-negative sentinel lymph nodes can and should be limited by using immunohistochemistry.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States. Fields et al. [11]
153 patients
(i) Factors associated with SLNB positivity are primary tumor size (25% ≤2 cm versus 45% >2 cm; P = 0.02) and presence of LVI (55% versus 4%; P < 0.01). The 2-year CIs of recurrence or death from MCC for LVI-positive patients were 30% and 15%, respectively. No LVI-negative patient experienced recurrence of disease or died of MCC.
Westmead Hospital, New South Wales, Australia. Howle and Veness [12]
16 patients, stage I or II
(i) 8/16 (50%) had a positive SLN. (ii) 8/16 had a negative SLN and did not undergo any nodal treatment following SLNB. Two of these patients developed nodal relapse, giving a false negative rate of 20%.
