Lymphatic transit rate as a predictive parameter for nodal metastasis in primary limb malignant melanoma

The status of sentinel lymph node (SLN) is one of the most predictive prognostic factors in the patients with clinically localized malignant melanomas (MMs) and is accurately evaluated by SLN biopsy [1,2]. In the nodal metastasis, however, the positive rate of SLN biopsy is as low as 20%, and many are negative [1]. Therefore, it is desirable to minimize SLN biopsy performance by preoperative imaging diagnosis.