Molecular analyses of sentinel lymph nodes: an open question

Aims To detect micrometastases in the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) of melanoma patients the authors analysed 52 lymph nodes (47 SLNs and five non-sentinel) and 17 corresponding primary skin melanomas using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays in paraffin-embedded tissues to detect the mRNAs of tyrosinase, MAGE1, MAGE3, MIA, MART-1 and mRNA coding for telomerase catalytic component. Results Our data show that the use of molecular markers for melanoma micrometastases detection in SLN is still in a very preliminary stage. In comparing the molecular analysis results with the pathological staging we did not find any evident correlation with the expression of the analysed genes in SLN. There are no data for judging the prognostic significance of the detection of circulating tumour cells in patients without clinically recognizable metastases. Despite progress in the field with simultaneous detection of several markers it was assumed that tyrosinase mRNA remains the best target for the detection of metastatic melanoma cells.