The sentinel concept in patients with cervical cancer.

The sentinel concept for patients with early cervical cancer has a high potential for decreasing morbidity and for increasing oncologic safety. The detection rate with technetium-labeling or a combination with blue dye varies between 84% and 92%. Sensitivity and negative predictive value depend on tumor size: the smaller the tumor, the higher the validity of the technique. Detection of circulating tumor cells in the sentinel node using HPVmRNA as marker may have a good prognostic value. Currently the sentinel concept should only be used in clinical studies before its validity has been proved.