Hello mcr85, 

I hope your mum is recovering well from the surgery on her face and that she hasn't been in too much pain. Our website has detailed information on the sentinel lymph node biopsy and it mentions that it normally takes just 1 to 2 weeks to get the results. 6 weeks does sound like a long time and perhaps they are experiencing delays where you live or taking a bit longer but it would definitely be worth trying to chase these results and find out whether they can tell you more or give you an indication of how long it may still take your mum to receive them. 

I would advise you ring the hospital where she had the surgery, her specialist's secretary or your GP surgery to try and get to the bottom of this. Other members of our community will have been in a similar situation before and have had to wait for sentinel node biopsy results so I hope they will be along shortly to share their experience with you. I am keeping everything crossed that you get these results very soon and that you get some clarity on this. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hello mcr85,I think I waited about 16 days for my results . But would definitely ring the consultants secretary to chase things up ,and another Bankholiday now too .

Keep in touch x

Thanks both, my dad tried calling the consultant yesterday and couldn't get through, and the allocated cancer care nurse hasn't responded to any of his calls from last week, so it's a bit of a poor show at the moment.

That is bad ,get onto them again on Tuesday and leave a message too

I'm sorry to hear that your mum is waiting so long for her results. I'm afraid that results are taking an average of 8 weeks depending on which hospital trust is involved. Can I suggest you look on the hospital website to see if the SCN and/or the consultant's Secretary has an email address that you can contact, as well as continuing to ring them. Sometimes it takes time to get through or for them to respond to a phone message or email as it depends if you are contacting them on clinic or surgery days. Don't give up, you will eventually get hold of someone. Good luck to your mum for clear results.

Angie, Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009

I think there are a lot of people with children taking holidays over this period, maybe your consultant is away. Maybe drop PALS a line as they might be able to get someone else to pick it up. X