Acral Lentiginous Histologic Subtype and Sentinel Lymph Node Positivity in Thin Melanoma.

Acral Lentiginous Histologic Subtype and Sentinel Lymph Node Positivity in Thin Melanoma Recent analysis of mortality from melanoma has shown that thin melanomas account for 20% and 25% of melanoma deaths in Australia and the United States, respectively, despite an overall survival rate of approximately 95% for patients with these cancers.1,2 Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is routinely recommended in patients with intermediate-thickness melanomas, but its role in thin melanomas (≤1 mm) is less well defined3,4; moreover, factors predictive of SLN positivity in this latter group have been variably reported. To specifically examine the prognostic significance of histologic subtype of thin melanomas for SLN metastasis, we reanalyzed these lesions in a cohort of patients originally created for a previous study of thin melanomas.5