Sentinel node navigation surgery (SNNS) is a new technology that provides accurate nodal staging with minimal morbidity, and potentially debilitating side effects of lymph node dissection can be eliminated in those patients that are node negative. SNNS seems feasible in early breast cancer patients with clinically negative nodes and the capacity for its application in patients with cancer in the gastrointestinal tract has been suggested. There are, however, still open questions regarding technical performance of sentinel node surgery, and determining how well SNNS compares to routine lymph node dissection will require long-term prospective randomized trial for each type of surgical tumor. With more intensive examination of biopsied sentinel nodes, the necessity of elucidating the biologic nature of micrometastases has risen to the surface.