Advantages of Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping by Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography/Computed Tomography in Early-Stage Malignant Head-and-Neck Skin Tumors

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the advantages of preoperative sentinel lymph node mapping (SLNM) by single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT / CT) in patients with early-stage cutaneous head-and-neck malignancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conduct a 7-year and 6 months retrospective, cross-sectional study. Patients with early-stage malignant head-and-neck skin tumors and cutaneous adnexa who underwent SLNM by SPECT/CT from March 2012 and December 2019, were included in the study. RESULTS: We retrospectively analyzed 28 patients: Melanoma was the most frequent tumor (64.2%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (25%). The anterior cheek was the most common functional subsite (25%). Twenty-seven patients (96.4%) had a successful SLN detection with SPECT/CT. Neck lymph node dissection was performed in 23 patients (82.1%). According to the pathological specimen, lymph nodes were found in all of them; hence, the efficacy of the SPECT/CT for SLNM was 100%. At 7-year follow-up, systemic recurrence was found in one patient (3.6%), another had locoregional recurrence (3.6%), and the mortality rate was 3.6%. CONCLUSIONS: In early-stage malignant head-and-neck skin tumors, there is a high concordance between SLN found by SPECT/CT and the histopathological results. Preoperative SPECT/CT accurately detects the SLN, assesses unexpected lymph nodes and their drainage pathways, and facilitates their location by reliably showing the relationships between sentinel nodes and important anatomic structures. This allows to perform a clear preoperative evaluation, an accurate staging for all patients and to avoid excessive dissections that could result in cosmetic and functional deformities.