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Background: In cutaneous malignant melanoma (MM) withclinically uninvolved regional lymph nodes, sentinel lymphnode (SLN) status is the most powerful indicator of bothoverall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). However,no studies on the long-term survival and clinical follow-up ofKorean patients with acral lentiginous MM (ALM) undergoingSLN biopsy (SLNB) have been published. Objective:The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinicalprognosis and long-term survival of Korean patients withALM according to SLN status. Methods: Thirty-four ALMpatients undergoing SLNB were included in this study. Weevaluated clinical and histopathological follow-up data suchas the stage of disease, treatment, recurrence, and metastasis,and analyzed OS and DFS according to SLN status. Results:The median follow-up time was 60.5 months (range 3∼127months). Positive SLNs were noted in 14 patients (41.2%). Patients with negative SLNs had better OS and DFS thanthose with positive SLNs (p＜0.05). Increased Breslowthickness was associated with short OS and DFS (p＜0.05),and female patients showed better DFS than male patients (p＜0.05). Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first studyon the long-term survival and clinical follow-up of patientsundergoing SLNB for ALM in Korea. Our findings show thatSLN status is an important prognostic factor for predicting OSand DFS.
