Radiological diagnoses after contrast lymphography were compared with histological diagnoses on excised specimens of nodes of 17 melanoma patients. False positive and false negative diagnoses were so common that the value of lymphography in guiding clinical decisions on patient management was nullified. Of 228 nodes examined 63 had filling defects and 9 of these were due to tumor; however, 14 of these 63 nodes initially were diagnosed radiologically as containing tumor. A false negative report on an outlined node was given 9 times, either because the metastasis was small or because a discernible filling defect was misinterpreted. Of 10 nodes which were not outlined with dye, one contained tumor. Useful information for the designing and execution of lymph node excision operations was derived from lymphography.
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Cox et al. (1966) studied this question.