Sentinel lymph node biopsy is essential for tailoring treatment in cutaneous melanoma, and a study compared the effectiveness of two identification methods: radiotracer injection and indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescent dye.
The study involved 54 patients, with both techniques accurately identifying the sentinel node in 52 out of 54 cases, demonstrating that they consistently mapped to the same nodes.
Results showed a similar cancer involvement rate of 19.2% for both methods, with no significant differences in recurrence or survival, suggesting ICG could be a reliable and potentially more cost-effective alternative to the traditional radiotracer method.