Sentinel lymph node biopsy in cN0 squamous cell carcinoma of the lip: A retrospective study.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to assess the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in clinically lymph node-negative (cN0) squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lip deemed high risk for occult nodal metastasis. METHODS Twenty-six patients with cT1 to T2 cN0 with SCC of the lip underwent SLNB at a tertiary referral center between January 2001 and March 2012. Initial staging methods were clinical examination only (65.4%), ultrasound (23.1%), or CT (11.5%). Operations were performed with the patients under local anesthesia with sedation (50%) or general anesthesia (50%). RESULTS The mean follow-up time was 53 months. Three patients (11.5%) had a positive sentinel node and were upstaged. One SLNB-related complication was observed. Regional recurrence occurred in 2 patients (7.7%). The relationship between regional status and both tumor diameter and tumor thickness was statistically significant (p < .05). CONCLUSION SLNB can be a viable staging technique in SCC of the lip. Tumor diameter of ≥ 20 mm and increasing tumor thickness seem to delineate higher risk for regional disease in our study. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E1375-E1380, 2016.