Elsevier

Annals of Oncology

Volume 24, Issue 5, May 2013, Pages 1400-1405
Annals of Oncology

original articles
sarcomas
Sentinel node biopsy in soft tissue sarcoma subtypes with a high propensity for regional lymphatic spread—results of a large prospective trial

https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mds650Get rights and content
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Abstract

Background

The role of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in soft tissue sarcoma patients has yet to be determined. We sought to evaluate the role of SLNB in the treatment of patients with clear cell sarcoma (CCS), synovial sarcoma (SS), epithelioid sarcoma (ES) and rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS).

Patients and methods

Sixty-two consecutive patients without history of regional lymphatic spread or evidence of distant metastases underwent SLNB.

Results

Positive sentinel nodes were identified in 2 out of 42 patients with SS and in 6 out of 12 patients with CCS. Only two CCS patients had further metastatic nodes in regional dissection. Both of these patients, along with another CCS patient, developed distant metastases and ultimately died of disease. The remaining three CCS patients are disease-free in follow-up. One patient with SS and another with ES developed regional lymph node metastases following a negative SLNB, while a further patient with RMS developed distant metastases followed by a local recurrence with regional metastases shortly after.

Conclusions

SLNB is an important diagnostic tool for patients with CCS, who appear to have a high rate of clinically occult regional lymph node metastases at diagnosis. For SS patients, SLNB appears to be of very little relevance.

Keywords

clear cell sarcoma
epithelioid sarcoma
lymph node metastases
rhabdomyosarcoma
sentinel node biopsy
synovial sarcoma

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