Nodal involvement in cancer of the uterine cervix: value of lymphography and MRI.

In this study the preoperative staging of lymph node involvement in cervical cancer was analyzed retrospectively in 155 cases. All results were correlated with lymph node histology. One hundred and three patients underwent preoperative lymphography. Twelve of them were investigated by lymphography and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). One patient was staged Ia, 10 patients were staged Ib and one patient was staged IIb. All patients underwent surgery; 18.5 lymph nodes were removed on average. Histologically lymph node involvement was found in 3 cases. Lymphography was able to detect lymph node involvement correctly in one case (33% sensitivity). We got two false positive results by lymphography (67% specificity). By MRI all cases were classified as nodal negative. MRI did not have advantage over bipedal lymphography in detecting lymph node involvement in our study, even though the results of lymphography were also poor.