Critical appraisal:Broer PN, Walker ME, Goldberg C, Buonocore S, Braddock DT, Lazova R, et al 2013

Critical Appraisal

Article being appraised

Broer PN, Walker ME, Goldberg C, Buonocore S, Braddock DT, Lazova R, et al. Desmoplastic melanoma: a 12-year experience with sentinel lymph node biopsy. Eur J Surg Oncol 2013 Jul;39(7):681-5 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23522951.

Applicable clinical question

What is the role of sentinel node biopsy for desmoplastic neurotropic melanomas?

Key Facts

Study Design

cohort study

Study aims:

To review the incidence of nodal metastasis in our patients with Desmoplastic Melanoma (DM) to better define guidelines regarding the performance of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in this specific melanoma subtype

Number of Patients:

24

24 patients with DM,
22 of which underwent SLNB

Reported outcome(s):

micro-metastasis
local recurrence
in-transit recurrence

Results of outcome(s):

Twenty-two patients from the DM group had SLNB

- Four patients (18%) were diagnosed with micro-metastasis
- Two patients (9%) developed local recurrence,
- Two patients (9%) developed in-transit recurrence,
- Six patients (27%) showed distant metastases (three patients were pure DM and three patients showed mixed morphology)
- Also note that patients with mixed DM had a higher rate of nodal metastasis (25%) vs those with pure DM (14%).

Includes an economic evaluation

no