Originally published as JCO Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2008.20.6870 on May 4 2009

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Leijte, J. A.P. Articles by Horenblas, S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Leijte, J. A.P. Articles by Horenblas, S. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Two-Center Evaluation of Dynamic Sentinel Node Biopsy for Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Penis

From the Departments of Urology, Nuclear Medicine, and Surgical Oncology, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and the Departments of Urology, Pathology, and Radiology, St George's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.

Corresponding author: Simon Horenblas, MD, PhD, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Plesmanlaan 121, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 1066 CX; e-mail: s.horenblas{at}nki.nl.

Purpose Sentinel node biopsy is used to evaluate the nodal status of patients with clinically node-negative penile carcinoma. Its use is not widespread, and the majority of patients with clinically node-negative disease undergo an elective inguinal lymph node dissection. Reservations about the use of sentinel node biopsy include the fact that most current results come from one institution and the supposedly long learning curve associated with the procedure. The purpose of this study was to address these issues by analyzing results from two centers and by evaluating the learning curve.

Patients and Methods All patients undergoing sentinel node biopsy for penile carcinoma at two centers were included. The sentinel node identification rate, false-negative rate, and morbidity of the procedure were calculated. Results from the first 30 procedures were assessed for a potential learning curve.

Results A total of 323 patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma, which included 611 clinically node-negative groins, were scheduled for sentinel node biopsy. A sentinel node was found in 572 of the 592 groins (97%) that proceeded to sentinel node biopsy. In 79 groins, a sentinel node was positive for tumor. Six inguinal node recurrences occurred after a negative sentinel node procedure, all within 15 months after sentinel node biopsy. The combined false-negative rate was 7%. Complications occurred in 4.7% of explored groins. None of the false-negative procedures occurred in the initial 30 procedures.

Conclusion Sentinel node biopsy is a suitable procedure to stage clinically node-negative penile cancer, and it has a low complication rate. No learning curve was demonstrated in this study.

Presented at the 23rd Annual European Association Urology Congress, March 26-29, 2008, Milan, Italy.

Published in part for the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Eur Urol 2007;52:170-177) and for St George's Hospital (BJU Int 2007;100:561-565).

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?