| Summary: | The role of sentinel lymph node detection was clearly demonstrated in patients diagnosed with gynecologic malignancies such as breast, endometrial, cervical or vulvar cancer. Therefore, the method provides an adequate staging of the disease with minimal postoperative complications when compared to classical extended lymphadenectomy. Recently, the method has been successfully reported in vaginal cancer patients. This is a literature review of the current papers published so far on the issue of sentinel lymph node detection in vaginal cancer patients. Although only few cases have been reported so far, it seems that sentinel lymph node biopsy in vaginal cancer patients represents a safe, effective and feasible method to diminish the rates of unnecessary extended lymph node dissection in vaginal cancer patients. However, due to the rarity of the disease in association with the low number of cases reported so far, the method is not part of the therapeutic standard protocol for this disease, larger studies still being needed.
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