Cheraghlou S, Ugwu N, Girardi M, et al. - Researchers examined if acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM), a rare subtype of malignant melanoma typically occurring on the palmar and plantar surfaces, is independently linked with sentinel lymph node (SLN) positivity.

• From the National Cancer Database (NCDB), cases of AJCC-8 clinical stage I to II melanomas from 2012 to 2015 were included in this retrospective cohort study.

• A total of 60,148 patients with malignant melanomas were identified for inclusion, of which, 959 had ALM-subtype disease.

• Analysis revealed an independent association ALM with an increased rate of SLN positivity and the estimated positivity rates were 18.39% and 39.53% for AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, 8th edition, clinical stage IB and II disease, respectively.

• Findings overall support encouraging SLNB for all patients with clinical stage IB and II ALM, and providing appropriate counseling to such patients about the higher regional metastatic risk of their cancers.