Comparative analysis of main clinical features in melanoma patients with and without sentinel lymph node biopsy

Introduction. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is fundamental in the treatment and prognosis of cutaneous malignant melanoma. This study aims to identify differences in baseline clinical characteristics and survival of patients with melanoma with and without a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) performed.  Material and methods. In 2018, a retrospective study of 151 patients with malignant melanoma (MM) was conducted. The patients were hospitalized at the Second Clinic of University Hospital — Pleven, from 2012 to 2017. The patients were divided into two groups: Group A included 58 (38.4%) patients with SLNB performed; Group B included 93 (61.6%) patients who did not undergo SLNB. A double-detection method was used while performing SLNB.  Results. The incidence of achromatic malignant melanoma is significantly higher in patients without SLNB (12 or 12.9%) than in patients with SLNB (2 or 3.4%) — c2 = 3.796, df = 1, p = 0.051. Of all 151 patients in the study, 46 died, representing 30.5% of patients with melanoma. The mortality rate was higher in the patients without SLNB (32.3% vs. 27.6% in Group A). However, the differences in the two groups are not statistically significant.  Conclusions. Patients with achromatic melanoma have significantly fewer sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies performed because of a late diagnosis. Most of our patients are diagnosed at a later stage when lymphatic metastases are already present, which leads to a significant increase in lymph node dissections performed. There is no significant difference in mortality and survival in the SLNB and non-SLNB groups