Clinical features and prognosis of Asian patients with acral lentiginous melanoma who have nodal nevi in their sentinel lymph node biopsy specimen

Nodal melanocytic nevi (NNs) encountered during sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLB) for malignant melanoma are usually difficult to distinguish from metastatic melanoma. However, NNs have not been well studied in acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) in Asian populations. To investigate the clinical characteristics and significance of NNs in SLB specimens from patients with ALM. We retrospectively analyzed 84 patients with ALM who underwent SLB between June 2010 and July 2017. Of the 84 patients with ALM, 9 (10.7%) had NNs in their SLB specimens. NNs were significantly more common in SLB specimens than in specimens not obtained by SLB. The presence of pre-existing melanocytic lesions was found to be associated with NNs (P