New study generates predictive model to help identify melanoma patients best eligible for sentinel lymph node biopsy
Source: Eurek Alert!, April 2023
Clinical eligibility guidelines determine the criteria by which patients are selected for various medical procedures. But strict reliance on established guidelines can overlook patients who might benefit from a procedure, while selecting some who are unlikely to benefit.
In a first-in-kind study of a decision analytical model, researchers at Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and colleagues in Australia developed a patient-centered approach that more accurately identified melanoma patients eligible for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). Findings of the study were published online today in JAMA Network Open.
“Improved accuracy in predicting SLNB-positivity enhances the cost-effectiveness of selecting patients for SLNB. Beyond SLNB for melanoma, our results may have important implications for how guidelines are developed for selecting patients to undergo other useful and needed medical procedures,” says Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, M.D., Medical Director of CPMC’s Cancer Center in San Francisco, CA and corresponding author of the study.