KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the necessity and clinical impact of PSLN resection in patients with SCVC.
- Researchers concluded that PSLN resection might be unnecessary in early vulvar cancer, regardless of lymph node infiltration or SLN count rate.
Bernd Morgenstern and the team aimed to investigate the clinical significance of pelvic sentinel lymph node (PSLN) resection in squamous cell vulvar cancer (SCVC) and its impact on short-term outcomes.
They performed an inclusive analysis on 62 groins of 33 patients with SCVC who underwent sentinel lymph node (SLN) resection between 2010 and 2021. The retrospective cohort study analyzed the frequency of additionally resectable PSLNs, histological findings, and count rates, comparing them to the findings for inguinal sentinel lymph nodes (ISLNs).
In all patients and in 61 (98%) of the 62 radiolabeled groins, at least 1 SLN could be resected. 5 (8%) of the 62 groins had histologically confirmed lymph node metastases (4/33 patients, 12%). 20 (33%) of the 62 groins underwent additional PSLN resection. Resection of these PSLNs was feasible without causing an additional burden for the patients.
None of the PSLNs showed signs of tumor infiltration. Information on the extent of radioactivity for ISLNs and simultaneously for PSLNs, expressed as the count rate of intraoperative measurement with the gamma probe, was available for 20 (32%) groins. In 3 (15%) of these cases, the highest count rate in an SLN was found in a PSLN and not in an ISLN.
The study concluded that resection of PSLNs is feasible and can be conducted without short-term complications. In early patients with SCVC, the necessity of PSLN resection is questionable, even in cases with early infiltration of inguinal lymph nodes. Furthermore, the intraoperative count rate of SLN was found to be irrelevant in determining the need for resection.
No funding information was given.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38821614/
Morgenstern B, Thangarajah F, Schmidt M, et al. (2024). “Clinical Impact of Pelvic Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma.” Anticancer Res. 2024 Jun;44(6):2621-2626. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.17068. PMID: 38821614.
