[Ganglion curage in prostate cancer]

In clinically Localized prostate cancers, the interest of pelvic Lymphadenectomy is debated. Nevertheless, this intervention provides important information on disease prognosis (number of positive lymph nodes, tumoural volume, and extracapsular perforation of the affected ganglions); information that previously no other technique could provide. However, no consensus exists concerning patients who should benefit from pelvic Lymphadenectomy and on the extent of this intervention. For most surgeons, decision making regarding ganglion curage is based on nomograms. According to these nomograms, patients with a level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) <10 ng/mL and a Gleason score <7 have a very low risk for ganglionic metastases; this is the reason why the benefit of pelvic Lymphadenectomy remains controversial. Besides, most of these nomograms are based upon the results of standard Lymphadenectomy (iliac vein and obturator fossa) with, subsequently, a related risk of imprecision. In addition, potential therapeutic benefit may be expected from extended ganglion curage, despite the fact that this is not clearly documented yet, due to the benign course of the disease. In other tumoural diseases (stomach cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, blade cancer), on the contrary, survival and stage identification depend on the number of removed ganglions, thus on the extent of Lymphadenectomy.