Ovarian cancer: no point in lymphadenectomy
Removing an average of 57 lymph nodes per patient did not improve overall survival, despite some nodes showing microscopic evidence of disease
Women with advanced ovarian cancer and normal lymph nodes after complete resection experience no survival benefit from systematic removal of pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenaectomy, conclude the authors of a randomised controlled trial.
Median overall survival was 65.5 months with lymphadenectomy versus 69.2 months in women who didn’t undergo the procedure, a difference that was not statistically significant, according to results published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Fifty seven lymph nodes (median) were removed per patient in the lymphadenectomy arm.
Median rates of progression-free survival in the two groups were identical, at 25.5 months.
