mitotic rate

Not true Ed.  Mitotic rate is still a widely used item on the pathology report to decide whether the patient needs more careful attention. It is the rate at which the cells are dividing.  But always the Breslow depth is first in the pathology to consider for further scrutiny.

https://journals.lww.com/dermatologicsurgery/Citation/2018/04000/Commentary_on_Impact_of_National_Comprehensive.4.aspx    Mitotic rate is important to decide whether a SLNB is done or not.  

Dear Anon, if you read the last paragraph of the incomplete article that you posted it brings up the issue of how NCCN will look at staging after AJCC article (the one I posted above) has removed mitosis rate as a factor in the new staging document. It does say that they will still collect the information and will be imployed for clinical tool development. Here is a link with more detail. https://www.skincancer.org/publications/the-melanoma-letter/2018-vol-36-no-1/ajcc-staging-system

In the following link, if you go to the section on "major changes" then read first paragraph after "Table one" you will find more information why mititoc rate was dropped from 8th edition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5978683/

Yes despite being dropped it is still something dermatopathologists use as a tool.  It determines the rate of cell division.  So a low depth but high mitotic would mean a higher risk for recur.

Ed in the article you quote it finalizes the mitotic opinion with: Mitotic rate remains a major determinant of prognosis across tumor thickness categories and should be documented in all primary invasive melanomas.

So yes KB  the mitotic rate of 8 does mean to pay close attention to whether a SLNB should be done.  How deep was your melanoma?  Put these two factors together to figure out your risk and what to do.