The Significance of Lymph Node Dissection in Patients with Early Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of lymph node dissection on the prognosis of early epithelial ovarian cancer and to assess the factors associated with lymph node metastasis.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we collected and analyzed the demographic characteristics, clinical pathological data, and perioperative adverse events in newly diagnosed early epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients, Federation International of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IA-IIA. The patients underwent surgical treatment at the First, Second, and Third Affiliated Hospitals of Wenzhou Medical University in Zhejiang Province, China, between June 2012 and June 2022. The survival analysis was performed.

Results: We enrolled 284 patients in this study, including 246 stage I, 28 stage II, and 10 stage III patients after surgery. Among them, 42 patients did not undergo lymph node dissection, 113 underwent pelvic lymph node dissection only, and 129 underwent pelvic plus para-aortic lymph node dissection. Among the lymph node dissection group, only 8 patients had lymph node metastasis (8/242, 3.3%), including 6 with pelvic lymph node metastasis and 2 with pelvic plus para-aortic lymph node metastasis. The median follow-up duration was 63 months. The systematic lymph node dissection group significantly prolonged the median operation duration and increased intraoperative blood loss and postoperative complications (p < 0.05). Postoperative multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed FIGO stage III as an independent risk factor for Progression-Free-Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS) (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the preoperative cancer antigen 125 (CA125) level was observed as an independent factor affecting lymph node metastasis.

Conclusions: Systematic lymph node dissection showed minimal effect on the survival rate of patients with clinically apparent early epithelial ovarian cancer and increased the postoperative complications of patients.