Background[99mTc]Tilmanocept is a CD206 receptor-targeted radiopharmaceutical designed for sentinel lymph node (SLN) identification. Two nearly identical nonrandomized phase III trials compared [99mTc]tilmanocept to vital blue dye.MethodsPatients received [99mTc]tilmanocept and blue dye. SLNs identified intraoperatively as radioactive and/or blue were excised and histologically examined. The primary end point, concordance, was the proportion of blue nodes detected by [99mTc]tilmanocept; 90 % concordance was the prespecified minimum concordance level. Reverse concordance, the proportion of radioactive nodes detected by blue dye, was also calculated. The prospective statistical plan combined the data from both trials.ResultsFifteen centers contributed 154 melanoma patients who were injected with both agents and were intraoperatively evaluated. Intraoperatively, 232 of 235 blue nodes were detected by [99mTc]tilmanocept, for 98.7 % concordance (p < 0.001). [99mTc]Tilmanocept detected 364 nodes, for 63.7 % reverse concordance (232 of 364 nodes). [99mTc]Tilmanocept detected at least one node in more patients (n = 150) than blue dye (n = 138, p = 0.002). In 135 of 138 patients with at least one blue node, all blue nodes were radioactive. Melanoma was identified in the SLNs of 22.1 % of patients; all 45 melanoma-positive SLNs were detected by [99mTc]tilmanocept, whereas blue dye detected only 36 (80 %) of 45 (p = 0.004). No positive SLNs were detected exclusively by blue dye. Four of 34 node-positive patients were identified only by [99mTc]tilmanocept, so 4 (2.6 %) of 154 patients were correctly staged only by [99mTc]tilmanocept. No serious adverse events were attributed to [99mTc]tilmanocept.Conclusions[99mTc]Tilmanocept met the prespecified concordance primary end point, identifying 98.7 % of blue nodes. It identified more SLNs in more patients, and identified more melanoma-containing nodes than blue dye.

BACKGROUND The management of pediatric melanoma (PM) has largely been extrapolated from adult data. However, the behavior of PM appears to differ from its adult counterparts. Therefore, an international PM registry was created and analyzed. METHODS Twelve institutions contributed deidentified clinicopathologic and outcome data for patients diagnosed with PM from 1953 through 2008. RESULTS Overall survival (OS) data were reported for 365 patients with invasive PM who had adequate follow-up data. The mean age of the patients was 16 years (range 1 year-21 years). The 10-year OS rate, 80.6%, tended to vary by patient age: 100% for those aged birth to 10 years, 69.7% for those aged > 10 years to 15 years, and 79.5% for those aged > 15 years to 20 years (P =.147). Patients with melanomas measuring ≤ 1 mm had a favorable prognosis (10-year OS rate of 97%), whereas survival was lower but similar for patients with melanomas measuring > 1 mm to 2 mm, > 2 mm to 4 mm, and > 4 mm (70%, 78%, and 80%, respectively; P =.0077). Ulceration and lymph node metastasis were found to be correlated with worse survival (P =.022 and P =.017, respectively). The 10-year OS rate was 94.1% for patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stage I disease, 79.6% for those with stage II disease, and 77.1% for patients with stage III disease (P <.001). CONCLUSIONS Tumor thickness, ulceration, lymph node status, and stage were found to be significant predictors of survival in patients with PM, similar to adult melanoma. There is a trend toward increased survival in children aged ≤ 10 years versus adolescents aged > 10 years. Further analyses are needed to probe for potential biological and behavioral differences in pediatric versus adult melanoma.