Wondering if anyone else has felt somewhat confused about the prognosis of the node-negative disease, i.e. stage I/II. It seems that many sources and practicioners nowadays give a highly optimistic outlook following a negative sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), speaking of a cured disease or in similar terms. On the other hand, research papers available online indicate rather notable recurrence rates for node-negative patients–in the ballpark of, say, 15%.
Of course, patient databases used to estimate 10-15 year recurrence/survival rates automatically span a few decades back. The SLNB method has been routinely adopted starting mid-90s to my understanding. Since then, SLNB has been carried out apparently with varying protocols regarding the use of radioactive tracing, no. of sections taken from biopsied nodes, and the use of immunohistochemical staining to detect melanoma cells.
I would assume that a state-of-the-art SLNB today would encompass all of the above mentioned steps, where the entire biopsied nodes would be sectioned for immunohistochemical staining. Thus, I would further speculate that the procedures are on average more accurate today than over the course of the past few decades, leading to a lesser amount of false-negative findings.
Has anyone come across any educated guesses as to what the impact of this should be on the historical-based recurrence/survival rates? Or has anyone had their excellent prognosis explained to them, perhaps, citing these kinds of factors?
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