To investigate the efficacy of carbon-nanoparticles suspension in detecting sentinel lymph nodes in cT1-2N0 oral tongue carcinoma and explore the application value of carbon-nanoparticles suspension in sentinel lymph node biopsy.

Fifty-eight patients with cT1-2N0 oral tongue carcinoma were enrolled in this prospective trial. Thirty patients received carbon nanoparticle injection around the tumor pre-operatively (experimental group), and the remaining 28 were injected with methylene blue dye (control group). All patients underwent elective neck dissection and routine pathological examination was performed in all resected specimens.

The experimental group had a clear surgical field compared with the control group, and there is clear boundary between the staining lymph nodes and surrounding tissue. In the experimental group, the detection rate, sensitivity, accuracy rate, and false negative rate of the carbon-nanoparticles suspension were 96.7% (29/30), 87.5% (7/8), 93.3% (28/30), and 12.5% (1/8), respectively compared with 92.8% (26/28), 66.7% (4/6), 85.7% (24/28), and 33.3% (2/6), respectively, of the control group. There is no significant difference in both groups (P>0.05).

The application of carbon-nanoparticles suspension facilitate sentinel lymph node detection and histological evaluation and therefore, could be an important adjunct to sentinel lymph node biopsy in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma.