Abstract: Melanoma, which originates from skin and mucosa, is a rapidly growing malignant tumor that exhibits early stage lymph node metastasis.The evaluation of lymph node status is critical for the staging and treatment of melanoma, and sentinel node biopsy (SLNB) plays an important role in this comprehensive diagnosis and treatment system.The SLNB technique is rapidly developing in re-cent years; however, whether complete lymph node dissection with positive sentinel lymph nodes significantly prolongs patients'over-all survival remains controversial.The final results of a global, multicenter clinical trial did not support the benefit of increased disease-specific survival rates in melanoma patients who underwent complete lymph node dissection after sentinellymph nodes were found positive.It is certain that SLNB can significantly improve local control and decrease regional recurrence and that SLNB is a reliable pro-cedure for staging and prognosis prediction in the evidence-based medicine era.The authors review the progress and significance of research on sentinel lymph node biopsy in the treatment of melanoma.