In Reply: sentinel lymph node biopsy in melanoma

Abstract

[Extract] Di Georgi and colleagues propose that sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) does not provide a real survival benefit and that the disease-free survival benefit is a result of lead-time bias. These are old arguments that have been repeatedly discussed in the literature. A reiterative statement of these arguments does not make them truer. The only new idea in the letter of Di Georgi and colleagues is to designate the gain of disease-free survival time as lead-time bias that shows that they did not really understand the concept of lead time bias.