The British journal of surgery
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Multicenter Study
Effect of delay between nuclear medicine scanning and sentinel node biopsy on outcome in patients with cutaneous melanoma.
Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is an important staging tool for the management of melanoma. A multicentre study was done to validate previous findings that the timing of lymphoscintigraphy influences the accuracy of SLNB and patient outcomes, particularly survival. ⋯ Delaying SLNB beyond 12 h after lymphoscintigraphy with 99 Tc-labelled nanocolloid has a significant negative survival impact in patients with melanoma.