Advances in nuclear and non-nuclear imaging for sentinel lymph node biopsy in cutaneous melanoma
QIU Zequn
SHAO Guoqiang
WANG Yan
Abstract：Cutaneous melanoma is a highly malignant tumor,and early lymphatic metastasis significantly influences treatment decisions and prognostic evaluation.Sentinel lymph node biopsy,as a crucial technique for assessing regional lymph node involvement,has made remarkable pro-gress in recent years with the support of advanced imaging technologies.Developments in radionu-clide imaging have notably improved the accuracy of SLNB.Several novel radiotracers,such as 99mTc-Tilmanocept,have demonstrated high specificity and facilitate precise localization of senti-nel lymph nodes.Advanced imaging modalities,including single-photon emission computed tomo-graphy/computed tomography,offer accurate three-dimensional anatomical information and signifi-cantly enhance detection rates,particularly in anatomically complex regions.In addition,multi-modal imaging approaches,such as portable gamma cameras combined with lymphoscintigraphy or near-infrared fluorescence,further improve intraoperative node identification.Emerging tracers,including[68Ga]Ga-SPM and 18 F-PFPN,show promising potential in the localization and charac-terization of sentinel nodes and microscopic melanoma metastases.On the other hand,non-nuclear imaging techniques,such as multispectral optoacoustic tomography,superparamagnetic iron oxide enhanced magnetic resonance imaging,and contrast-enhanced ultrasound,have also demonstrated notable advances.This review summarizes recent progress in both nuclear and non-nuclear imaging technologies for sentinel lymph node biopsy in cutaneous melanoma,offering valuable insights for both clinicians and researchers.
Keywords：melanomadiagnosissentinel lymph node biopsyradionuclide imagingmultimodal imaging
Publication Date：2025-07-28
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-20(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 485-491 )