The issue of elective lymph node dissection (LND) in the management of melanoma patients with clinically negative nodes remains controversial. The concept of elective LND is attractive because it provides the opportunity to detect and remove occult micrometastases before they become clinically apparent. Numerous retrospective analyses have consistently shown a 15-20% long term survival advantage in patients undergoing elective LND who are found to have positive nodes, compared to those undergoing therapeutic LND for clinically positive nodes. The majority of patients undergoing elective LND however, do not have lymph node involvement, and the impact of removal of these negative nodes on the survival of these patients is unknown. The substantial morbidity of these procedures has led to the conduct of a number of important prospective randomized trials designed to define the impact of elective LND on the survival of patients with clinically node negative melanoma. In 1982, the World Health Organization reported on the end results of 553
The primary objective of this protocol is to establish the feasibility of lymph node mapping, using preoperative lymphoscintigraphy and intraoperative blue dye injection to detect the sentinel node in patients at risk for regional lymph node metastasis from their primary melanoma.
