Para-aortic Lymph Node Dissection for Women With Endometrial Adenocarcinoma and Intermediate- to High-Risk Tumors: Does It Improve Survival?

The detection of sentinel lymph nodes in laparoscopic surgery can eliminate systemic lymphadenectomy for patients with early stage endometrial cancer

Background

The examination of a sentinel lymph node (SLN), where lymph node metastasis first occurs, may be advocated as an alternative staging technique. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and detection rates of an SLN biopsy in patients with endometrial cancer.

Study design

Two hundred and eleven patients with endometrial cancer underwent an SLN biopsy at hysterectomy using three kinds of tracers including 99m-technetium-labeled tin colloid (^99mTc), indigo carmine and indocyanine green. Factors related to the side-specific detection rate, sensitivity and false negative rate were analyzed.

Results

The detection rates of the SLN biopsy using ^99mTc, indigo carmine and indocyanine green were 77.9, 17.0 and 73.4%, respectively. The detection rate was lower in elderly patients (≥60 years) (67.9 vs 89.2%, p < 0.01), patients with >50% myometrial invasion (68.3 vs 85.2%, p < 0.01), patients with high-grade tumors (69.5 vs 84.9%, p < 0.01) and patients who underwent laparotomy (71.2 vs 84.9%, p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in body mass index. The sensitivity was not significantly different in any factor. However, the false negative rate was higher in patients with > 50% myometrial invasion (11.5 vs 1.2%, p < 0.01), high-grade tumors (13.3 vs 0.8%, p < 0.01) and who underwent laparotomy (12.2 vs 0.4%, p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Patients who underwent laparoscopy with < 50% myometrial invasion and low-grade tumors not only have higher detection rates, but also have lower false negative rates. These patients may avoid systemic lymphadenectomy according to the status of the SLN biopsy.

Surgical treatment of endometrial cancer in developing countries: reasons to consider systematic two-step surgical treatment

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to determine the lymph node status in a large cohort of women with endometrial cancer from the public health system who were referred to an oncology reference center in Brazil to identify candidates for the omission of lymphadenectomy based on clinicopathological parameters.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 310 women with endometrial cancer (255 endometrioid, 40 serous, and 15 clear cell tumors) treated between 2009 and 2014. We evaluated the histological type, grade (low vs. high), tumor size (cm), depth of myometrial invasion (≤50%, >50%) and lymphovascular space invasion to determine which factors were correlated with the presence of lymph node metastasis.

RESULTS

The factors related to lymph node involvement were tumor size (p=0.03), myometrial invasion (p<0.01), tumor grade (p<0.01), and lymphovascular space invasion (p<0.01). The histological type was not associated with the nodal status (p=0.52). Only twelve of 176 patients (6.8%) had low-grade endometrioid carcinoma, tumor size ≤2 cm and <50% myometrial infiltration.

CONCLUSIONS

The omission of lymphadenectomy based on the histological type, grade, tumor size and depth of myometrial invasion is not likely to have a large impact on the surgical treatment of endometrial cancer in our population because most patients present with large and advanced tumors. New strategies are proposed that prioritize hysterectomy performed in a general hospital as soon as possible after diagnosis, followed by an evaluation of the need for lymph node dissection at a reference center.