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Thin melanomas represent approximately 50% to 70% of newly diagnosed melanomas. A small number of these will not be resolved by surgical interventions but will progress to distant metastasis or even death. It is important to identify which patients have the greatest risk for these adverse outcomes. Investigators retrospectively evaluated the utility of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for identifying patients at risk.
They reviewed the cases of 189 patients with melanoma (Breslow depth less than or equal to 1 mm) who had undergone SLNB at a single institution over a 10-year period. Three patients had positive SLNBs (1.6%). In transit or distant metastases occurred in six patients (3.2%), including two of those with positive SLNBs, indicatin…