Pelvic lymphadenectomy in operative treatment of ovarian cancer.

From the end of 1979 to September, 1985, radical pelvic lymphadenectomy was performed at the Graz Clinic in 123 cases of Stages IA to IV ovarian cancer following maximum debulking procedure. In 97 patients lymphadenectomy was done primarily. In 26 it was performed during a follow-up operation to chemotherapy. The frequency of pelvic node involvement was 61.8% in the total material and 78.0% in 82 cases of Stage III disease only; 75.0% positive nodes were found in Stage III after chemotherapy. Aortic nodes were positive in 41.4%, but only when pelvic nodes were also positive. The 5-year actuarial survival rate for Stage III disease was 53.0% after pelvic lymphadenectomy compared with 13.0% without. In cases with negative nodes the survival rate was 74.7%; with positive nodes the survival rate was 45.9%.