Abstract:

Background and purpose: The inguinal lymph node dissection of penile cancer after resection of the primary lesion has been controversial, this paper aimed to preliminary study the feasibility and clinical significance of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in pN₀ stage patients with penile cancer. Methods: We analyzed retrospectively the clinical data of 25 patients of pN₀ penile cancers admitted in our department from Mar. 2004 to Aug. 2012, all the patients used the methylene blue for SLNB after having resection of the primary lesion, at the same time received modified inguinal lymph node dissection (ILND). Results: The sentinel lymph node (SLN) of 24 patients had be actually detected, the success rate was 96% (24/25), 7 was positive, 17 was negative; The accuracy was 95.8% (23/24),sensitivity was 87.5% (7/8), false negative rate was 12.5% (1/8), and no false positive. There is a high degree of consistency between the SLNB grope and the routine grope (Kappa value=0.903, P<0.01). Conclusion: SLNB for pN₀ stage penile cancers without swollen lymph node had still important guiding significance.

Key words: Penile cancer, Sentinel lymph node, Lymph node dissection