Prospective cohort study of ultrasound surveillance of regional lymph nodes in patients with intermediate-risk cutaneous melanoma

Source: MdLinx, March 2019

In this prospective study, researchers assessed the effectiveness of both regular clinical examination and ultrasound surveillance of regional lymph node basins in patients with intermediate-thickness cutaneous melanoma. They recruited 90 patients with melanoma with a 1.2–3.5 mm thickness who had under-gone wide local excision but not sentinel node biopsy to a prospective observational study of regular clinical and ultrasound nodal surveillance. Nodal relapse as first recurrence was observed in ten patients after a median follow-up of 52 months, four had locoregional disease outside of an anatomical nodal basin as the first site of relapse, and six had relapse with distant disease. Observations support that in patients with melanoma who undergo nodal surveillance, ultrasound surveillance of regional lymph node basins could be performed safely.