Assessment of the sentinel lymph node technique

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the eleventh most common cancer worldwide. Its incidence is 354,864 new cases in 2018.it is the most prevalent of all malignant processes that manifest in the oral cavity representing 90% of all cases. One of the most historically recognized and implemented techniques in staging ,is lateral neck voiding (LNV). This technique has been shown to achieve better results in terms of survival than the "watch and wait" policy, although 70-80% of patients who undergo this technique are exposed to a series of associated postoperative risks, which diminish the patient's quality of life, since they do not present hidden metastatic lymph nodes. On the other hand, the term sentinel node (SN) is defined as the initial node of a chain of lymph nodes that is affected by the dissemination of a primary tumor, so it is the node closest to it. This means that when a cancer spreads to several nodes, the first one in the lymphatic chain will be called the sentinel node.