In cancer care staging is essential to provide information in relation to prognosis, to plan therapy and communicate with colleagues. It also informs research questions, allows the assessment of treatment amongst different patient groups as well as stratification within a clinical trial.
In gynaecological cancer staging requires information regarding lymph nodes but the morbidity associated with lymhadenectomy is significant so there has been growing interest in the role of sentinel lymph node assessment. This presentation will discuss how sentinel node assessment has become established in vulval cancer and is evolving as a reasonable alternative to full pelvic lymphadenectomy in endometrial and cervical cancer.