Onkológia 3/2013

Surgical therapy of malignant melanoma

Basic strategy in treatment of is excision with safety margins. The purpose of the safety margin is to remove both the complete primary tumour and any melanoma cells that might have spread into the surrounding skin. Excision margins are important, if they are too narrow, long-term survival is worse. But if they are too wide, worsen postoperative morbidity, cosmetic outcomes and they not increase long-term survival. Sentinel lymph node biopsy provides accurate staging and it is standard practice in managing of disease.

Keywords: melanoma, margins, sentinel lymph node biopsy.