Sentinel node biopsy for malignant melanoma

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7271.1285

BMJ 2000;321:1285 ( 18 November )

Letters

Sentinel node biopsy for malignant melanoma

Having this biopsy gives psychological benefits

What is a prognosis worth?

Biopsy helps define population who will benefit

Biopsy discriminates between stages of disease and prognosis

Staging procedures predict outcome and identify patients needing further treatment

Authors' reply

Having this biopsy gives psychological benefits

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ The editorial by Thomas and Patocskai summarises the current state of sentinel lymph node biopsy for malignant melanoma.¹What the authors omitted to address was patients' perception oftheprocedure.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that patients with melanoma derive psychological benefit from having the procedure, regardlessof the result. To investigate any such benefit our unit carriedout a study looking at the acceptability and benefits of the procedure.A specially designed questionnaire was sent to 110 patients whohad undergone the procedure between August 1997 and February1999.

Ninety eight patients (89%) replied, including all those in whom the result had been positive (19/110). To study any timedependent trends the respondents were subdivided into three subgroups,depending on length of follow up (table). Most patients (95/98)were glad that they had had the procedure, though the effectsdecreased with time (table). Overall 89 of the patients believedthat they had . . . [Full text of this article]

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The argument against sentinel node biopsy for malignant melanoma: J Meirion Thomas and Erica J Patocskai
BMJ 2000 321: 3-4. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]