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Diagnostic Accuracy of Fine Needle Biopsy for Metastatic Melanoma and Its Implications for Patient Management

¹ Sydney Melanoma Unit, Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia
² Department of Anatomical Pathology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
³ Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Ultrasound and Discipline of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
⁴ Discipline of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
⁵ Discipline of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
⁶ Melanoma and Skin Cancer Research Institute, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, New South Wales, Camperdown, Australia

Correspondence: Address correspondence and reprint requests to: John F. Thompson; Sydney Melanoma Unit, Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia; E-mail: john.thompson{at}smu.org.au

Background: The use of fine needle biopsy (FNB) for the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma can lead to the early removal and treatment of metastases, reduce the frequency of unnecessary surgery, and facilitate the staging of patients enrolled in clinical trials of adjuvant therapies. In this study, the accuracy of FNB for the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma was investigated.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed with 2204 consecutive FNBs performed on 1416 patients known or suspected to have metastatic melanoma. Almost three-quarters (1582) of these FNBs were verified by either histopathologic diagnosis following surgical resection or clinical follow-up.

Results: FNB for metastatic melanoma was found to have an overall sensitivity of 92.1% and a specificity of 99.2%, with 69 false-negative and 5 false-positive findings identified. The sensitivity of the procedure was found to be influenced by six factors. The use of immunostains, reporting of the specimen by a cytopathologist who had reported >500 cases, lesions located in the skin and subcutis, and patients with ulcerated primary melanomas were factors associated with a significant improvement in the sensitivity of the test. However, FNBs performed in masses located in lymph nodes of the axilla and FNBs that required more than one needle pass to obtain a sample were far more likely to result in false-negative results.

Conclusions: FNB is a rapid, accurate, and clinically useful technique for the assessment of disease status in patients with suspected metastatic melanoma.

Key Words: Cytology • Diagnosis • Diagnostic accuracy • Fine needle biopsy • Melanoma • Pathology