Inguinal sentinel node biopsy in epidermoid carcinoma of the anal canal: a pilot study

It has been well established that the primary therapeutic approach to anal squamous-cell carcinoma is chemoradiotherapy. Inguinal lymph node (LN) status is an important prognosis indicator and the presence of metastases in the inguinal LN is an independent marker of the local failure and overall survival. The appropriate management of patients with primary anal cancer and clinically uninvolved groins remains controversial. Nowadays there is no reliable diagnostic method to accurately determine nodal status of the inguinal region. This study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of a novel assessment method of the nodal status of the inguinal region in patients with epidermoid carcinoma of the anus and anal margin. We advocate that sentinel lymph node biopsy is a safe and feasible technique to detect metastases in inguinal nodes. (author)