Sentinel Node Metastasis Risk Nomogram
Research type
Research Study
Full title
International Validation Study of MIA Sentinel Node Metastasis Risk Nomogram
IRAS ID
303809
Contact name
Marc Moncrieff
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Melanoma Institute Australia
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 11 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
Identification of patients who are at higher risk of having spread of their melanoma skin cancer to the lymph nodes is important so that these patients can be offered a procedure known as sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). This SLNB is minimally invasive, but incurs health system and patient costs and has some small risks of complications associated with it. With this goal, the Melanoma Institute Australia have developed an online tool that calculates a patient's risk of having disease spread that will be found with SLNB. This has so far been validated for use with a large institutional database from the USA and also the Dutch national cancer registry. However, before this can be used in routine clinical practice in the UK and other countries it needs to be validated in those populations too. This international collaborative study will do this using multiple institutional databases from several countries.
The study will use de-identified data that has already been collected from patients who have undergone SLNB and therefore does not require any participant involvement.Summary of Results
The Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA) sentinel node risk calculator is a tool used to estimate the likelihood that melanoma has spread to the lymph nodes. It is based on six routinely collected clinical and pathological features. Although it has already been validated using data from the United States, its global use means further testing in other populations is important.
This large international study included over 15,000 patients from melanoma centres across four continents, including the UK, Europe, North and South America, and New Zealand. The findings confirm that the calculator performs well across diverse populations, particularly when all six features are available. Even when some data are missing, the tool still provides useful estimates. The updated version now offers more precise risk ranges, increasing its clinical utility.
In conclusion, the revised MIA risk calculator is accurate, reliable, and broadly applicable to support decision-making in melanoma care worldwide.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
22/NS/0016
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jan 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion