[Cutaneous melanoma and sentinel lymph node biopsy: where are we today?]

Malignant cutaneous melanoma is the cancer which has the most increased these last ten years. His prognose is linked with melanoma thickness, tumoral ulceration and lymph node metastasis. The research of these node metastasis is important for the prognosis and the treatment. The sentinel lymph node biopsy is used since 1991 and is now considered as a reliable choice for the patient staging. However, his therapeutic interest remains discussed. We discussed the used of the sentinel lymph node biopsy for malignant cutaneous melanoma with the last publications.