The aim of the present study was to assess whether the reliability of imprint touch cytology (ITC) of sentinel nodes in skin melanoma patients allows intraoperative decisions regarding simultaneous radical lymphadenectomy to be made.
Patients and methods: The results of ITC of sentinel nodes were compared with the results of standard histopathological and immunohistochemical examinations.
Results: A total of 148 sentinel nodes were identified in 98 lymph node groups in 85 skin melanoma patients. ITC revealed the presence of metastases in 7 out of 16 melanoma-positive sentinel nodes (sensitivity, 43.7%). There were no false-positive results of ITC of sentinel nodes (specificity, 100%). The negative predictive value of ITC was 93.6%, the positive predictive value was 100%, and the accuracy of the method was 93.9%.
Conclusion: ITC of sentinel nodes is a reliable method. There was no risk of overtreatment due to false-positive results of sentinel node ITC in our study. High accuracy of the method warrants its clinical use.