TABLE 1.
Characteristics of Patients Undergoing Completion Lymph Node Dissection Versus Active Surveillance
| No. of Patients (%) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Surveillance, N = 965 | Dissection, N = 189 | P |
| Location of treating center | |||
| Australia | 174 (18) | 8 (4) | <.01 |
| Europe | 129 (13) | 29 (15) | |
| United States | 662 (69) | 152 (80) | |
| Age: Mean ± SD, y | 59 ± 16 | 57 ± 16 | .11 |
| Men | 590 (61) | 122 (65) | .38 |
| Tumor locationa | |||
| Head/neck | 118 (12) | 39 (21) | <.01 |
| Trunk | 366 (38) | 75 (40) | |
| Upper extremity | 181 (19) | 41 (22) | |
| Lower extremity | 299 (31) | 34 (18) | |
| Breslow thickness, mm | |||
| ≤1.0 | 103 (11) | 22 (12) | .04 |
| >1.0 to 2.0 | 295 (30) | 45 (24) | |
| >2.0 to 4.0 | 325 (34) | 57 (30) | |
| >4.0 | 242 (25) | 65 (34) | |
| Tumor ulcerationa | 377 (40) | 80 (43) | .37 |
| Presence of microsatellitesa | 75 (9) | 25 (13) | .05 |
| No. of positive nodes | |||
| 1 | 755 (78) | 120 (64) | <.01 |
| 2-3 | 200 (21) | 57 (30) | |
| ≥4 | 10 (1) | 12 (6) | |
| Size of SLN metastasis: Median [25th-75th percentile], mma,b | 0.5 [0.0-2.0] | 1.7 [0.1-6.0] | <.01 |
| Extranodal extensiona | 52 (6) | 25 (13) | <.01 |
| AJCC8 stage | |||
| IIIA | 279 (39) | 89 (20) | <.01 |
| IIIB | 221 (23) | 25 (13) | |
| IIIC | 413 (43) | 102 (54) | |
| IIID | 11 (1) | 12 (6) | |
| BRAF mutation status | |||
| Mutant | 280 (46) | 65 (57) | .04 |
| Wild type | 329 (54) | 50 (43) | |
| Adjuvant systemic therapy | 365 (38) | 74 (39) | .75 |
Abbreviations: AJCC8, American Joint Committee on Cancer, eighth edition; SLN, sentinel lymph node.
a
Some patients had unknown values for tumor location (n = 1), tumor ulceration (n = 19), presence of microsatellites (n = 111), size of SLN metastasis (n = 148), extranodal extension (n = 42), AJCC8 stage (n = 2), BRAF mutation status (n = 430), and adjuvant systemic therapy (n = 3).
b
These include patients who had isolated tumor cells for which the size of SLN metastasis was reported as 0.0 mm.