The Risk of Contralateral Non-sentinel Metastasis in Patients with Primary Vulvar Cancer and Unilaterally Positive Sentinel Node.

Background: In patients with primary vulvar cancer and bilateral sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, bilateral complete inguino-femoral lymphadenectomy (LAE) is recommended, even in cases with only unilaterally positive SLN by most guidelines. The risk of contralateral non-SLN metastasis is unclear.

Methods: All patients with primary vulvar cancer receiving an SLN dissection with radioactive tracer ± blue dye at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf between 2001 and 2013 were retrospectively evaluated.