Increase of sentinel lymph node melanoma staging in The Netherlands; still room and need for further improvement

AIM: To investigate implementation of the seventh American Joint Committee on Cancer melanoma staging with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and associations with socioeconomic status (SES). PATIENTS & METHODS: Data from The Netherlands Cancer Registry on patient and tumor characteristics were analyzed for all stage IB–II melanoma cases diagnosed 2010–2016, along with SES data from The Netherlands Institute for Social Research. RESULTS: The proportion of SLNB-staged patients increased from 40% to 65% (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that being female, elderly, or having head-and-neck disease reduced the likelihood of SLNB staging. CONCLUSION: SLNB staging increased by 25% during the study period but lagged among elderly patients and those with head-and-neck melanoma. In The Netherlands, SES no longer affects SLNB staging performance.