The clinical significance of occult macroscopically positive retroperitoneal nodes in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to determine the time during primary cytoreduction when retroperitoneal lymph nodes that are involved with macroscopic disease are recognized to be involved with tumor, the dimensions of intranodal disease present, and the possible clinical significance of macroscopically positive nodes that are recognized at different phases of the operation.
METHODS: One hundred consecutive patients with stage IIIC and IV epithelial ovarian cancer underwent a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection during primary cytoreductive surgery. The phase of the operation in which nodes were recognized to be macroscopically involved with tumor was noted. Nodes were classified to be positive by palpation if recognized to be macroscopically involved by transperitoneal palpation, positive by inspection if recognized to be macroscopically involved by palpation after opening the retroperitoneal area, and positive by dissection if recognized to be macroscopically involved anytime after starting the actual process of lymph node dissection. The largest dimension of the intranodal disease in macroscopically positive nodes was measured. Log rank analysis determined whether nodal status or the time at which the nodes were recognized to be macroscopically positive influenced the probability of survival.
RESULTS: Of the 100 patients, 66 had positive lymph nodes. Five were microscopically positive and 61 were macroscopically positive, of which 19 (31.1%) were positive by palpation, 16 (26.2%) were positive by inspection, 26 (42.6%) were positive by dissection. Of the 39 patients with negative and microscopically positive nodes 15 (38.5%) were clinically suspicious. Compared with patients with negative and microscopically positive lymph nodes, survival was not significantly different for patients who required excision of macroscopically positive nodal tissue. Survival was not influenced by the specific phase of surgery in which macroscopically positive nodes were recognized.
CONCLUSIONS: A significant percentage of patients had retroperitoneal nodes recognized to be involved with macroscopic disease only after a lymph node dissection was in progress. The decision not to perform a lymph node dissection for optimally and completely cytoreduced patients may result in unrecognized macroscopic residual disease that is larger than what would otherwise be documented. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.