Open Access

CASE REPORT

A case of penile melanoma illustrating the low sensitivity of frozen sections in the assessment of sentinel lymph nodes

Sero Andonian¹, Sarkis H. Meterissian¹, A. Kevin Watters², Antoine Loutfi¹

1 Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology
2 Department of Pathology, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Address correspondence to Dr. Antoine Loutfi, Royal Victoria Hospital, 687 Pine Avenue, Room S10.22, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A1 Canada

Canadian Journal of Urology 2003, 10(4), 1947-1949.

Abstract

A 75 year-old uncircumcised man presented with a 1.1 mm thick malignant melanoma on the ventral aspect of the glans penis. He underwent isosulfan blue and technetium 99m guided sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy and distal penectomy with 2 cm margins. This is the third reported case of penile melanoma using both markers for SLN mapping. While frozen sections and H & E stains were negative, S-100 and HMB-45 immunohistochemistry revealed micrometastasis in one of the sentinel nodes. This case illustrates that any discussion with the patient about management and prognosis should await immunohistochemistry results.

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Keywords

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