ABSTRACT
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 115 Review o f the Literature.................................................................................................... 115 Pathologic Protocol fo r Handling Sentinel N od es ...................................................... 116 Results................................................................................................................................... 118 D iscussion ............................................................................................................................ 121
INTRODUCTION
Successful lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy requires a specialized but multidisciplinary approach, utilizing the surgeon, nuclear medi cine physician, and pathologist. With sentinel lymphadenectomy rapidly becom ing the standard o f care for patients with melanoma at risk for metastases, pa thologists are encountering these specimens with increasing frequency in their daily practice. The pathologic status of the sentinel lymph node is pivotal to the patient’s care because it provides staging information that dictates the need for further therapy. Therefore, defining a method for detailed assessment o f this tis sue is o f the utmost importance. Our standard pathology protocol for SLN in cludes complete submission of all tissue with routine use o f immunohistochemical staining for S-100 protein, and intraoperative touch preparation cytology as an adjunct technique in SLN grossly suspicious for metastatic disease. This chap ter reviews the literature concerning pathology o f sentinel nodes in malignant melanoma patients and describes our results in over 400 melanoma patients to date.
