So sorry your relative is having to go through this. You're being great support for her by finding out as much info as you can to be prepared. Although it might be considered unusual for a "shallow" lesion to have spread to lymph nodes, it isn't unheard of. Mitosis rate could be a factor into why it spread already, that is the rate at which the cancer cells divide, and if it is high, then there is a higher chance of spread. I would remain hopeful that her scans will be clear, but mentally preparing for something further never hurts.
When I had my SLNB (senintel lymph node biopsy) done I also had 3 lymph nodes positive for melanoma. The odd and interesting thing about my lymph node involvement is that they all had around the same amount of melanoma. The pathologist described it as looking like "speckeled jelly beans". This is unusual because the general idea is that it would spread to one lymph node first, grow as much as it can, then move on to the next one, so there would be more of a progression where one lymph node has the most melanoma, the next a little less, and so on. I wonder if your relative's lymph node involvement is similar to mine, not that it changes staging, but could be something interesting to know.
All you can do now is wait for results of the scans, once those are in then she can start to get an idea of what treatment options are available to her.
Best,
.
