Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in N0 Neck for Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Oral Cavity: a Prospective Study

Oral cancers in India are very common. SLNB (sentinel lymph node biopsy) for the management of the cN0 neck provides proper staging with less morbidity. The study aims at assessment of the technical feasibility and accuracy of SLNB. Two by two table and Kappa statistic was used to compare SLN and END. In 14 cases out of 16 cases, SLN was identified. Sensitivity and specificity of 100 % were found. One hundred percent agreement was observed between SLN and END using kappa statistics. A meta-analysis of 19 studies showed 97.7 % sentinel node identification rate and 92.6 % sensitivity with a false negative rate of 3 %. In patients with N0 neck and negative SLN, neck dissection can be avoided decreasing morbidity of SOND. SLN biopsy has potential to become standard of care for managing N0 neck; however, long-term oncological results need to be evaluated.