Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping in Esophageal Cancer Using ICG Dye and NIR Imaging

July 2, 2025 updated by: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Does the Concept of the Sentinel Lymph Node Apply to Esophageal Cancer? A Prospective Assessment of Near-infrared Image-guided Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymph Node Identification in Esophageal Cancer

The purpose of this study is to find out whether sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping with ICG dye and NIR imaging can be used to identify esophageal or esophagogastric junction cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes. If SLN mapping is successful in these types of cancer, surgeons in the future could identify the sentinel lymph nodes and only remove these instead of removing all the lymph nodes which is currently done.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

90

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10065
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (All Protocol Activities)

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pathological diagnosis of adenocarcinoma tumor located in distal 1/3 of esophagus or esophagogastric junction , with a plan to undergo minimally invasive esophagectomy.
  • All patients with Stage IVA (AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, 8th edition) disease will be eligible
  • ≥18 years of age.
  • Documented, signed, and dated informed consent, obtained before any procedures, for the proposed research study and for standard surgical resection.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No plan to undergo surgical resection.
  • Severe iodide or seafood allergy.
  • Women of childbearing potential without a negative pregnancy test; or women who are lactating.
  • Prior diagnosis of severe hepatic or renal dysfunction.
  • Patients with Stage IVB or M1 disease (AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, 8th edition)
  • Patients with local recurrence and planning to undergo salvage esophagectomy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: SLN mapping by NIR with ICG
Patients will undergo ICG injection and NIR imaging for lymphatic mapping. Any identified SLNs will be dissected during the standard completion lymphadenectomy and esophagectomy. The SLN biopsy procedure will be performed as described below. Although NIR with ICG is used to assess conduit perfusion in all esophagectomies performed at MSK, its use for lymphatic mapping is considered experimental in esophageal cancer.
Other: Injection of indocyanine green (ICG)dye
Patients will receive a perilesional injection of indocyanine green (ICG) before the laparoscopic phase of the esophagectomy.
Device: Near-Infrared Image-Guided
Real-time near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging will be performed by use of the Novadaq PINPOINT minimally invasive system with a laparoscopic camera.
Procedure: Sentinel Lymph Node (SLN) mapping
Any identified SLNs will be dissected during the standard completion lymphadenectomy and esophagectomy.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The number of lymph nodes visualized to be fluorescent and nonfluorescent.
Time Frame: 1 year
Surgical data will include the number of lymph nodes identified and removed both NIRfluorescent and NIR-nonfluorescent nodes.
1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Daniela Molena, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 20, 2020

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 20, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 20, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

May 22, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 3, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 2, 2025

Last Verified

July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 20-201

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and the ethical obligation of responsible sharing of data from clinical trials. The protocol summary, a statistical summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required as a condition of Federal awards, other agreements supporting the research and/or as otherwise required. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 12 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: crdatashare@mskcc.org.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Esophageal Cancer

Clinical Trials on Injection of indocyanine green (ICG)dye

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Equatorial Guinea

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe