Laterally extended endopelvic resection (LEER)--principles and practice

Exenteration has been used for the last 6 decades, mainly to treat cancers of the lower and middle female genital tract in the irradiated pelvis. New ablative techniques based on developmentally derived surgical anatomy termed laterally extended endopelvic resection (LEER) aim to increase the curative resection rate, even of tumors extending to and fixed to the pelvic side wall. LEER is performed as a combination of at least two of the following procedures: total mesorectal excision, total mesometrial resection, and total mesovesical resection. In cases of lateral tumor fixation, the inclusion of pelvic side wall and floor muscles, such as the obturator internus muscle and pubococcygeus, iliococcygeus and coccygeus muscles, and eventually of the internal iliac vessel system assures the completeness of the multicompartmental resection. One hundred patients with locally advanced (n=25) and recurrent (n=75) gynecologic tumors have been treated with these new procedures. In 76 patients, the tumors were fixed to the pelvic side wall. Two patients with advanced age and extensive comorbidity died during the early postoperative period. Moderate and severe treatment-related morbidity was 70%, mainly due to compromised healing of irradiated tissue and the performance of complex reconstructions. At a median follow-up period of 30 months (range, 1-136 months), 5-year recurrence-free and disease-specific overall survival probabilities are 62% (95% CI, 52-72%) and 55% (95% CI, 43-67%), respectively. LEER has significant potential to salvage selected patients with locally advanced and recurrent gynecologic malignancies, including those with pelvic side wall disease, traditionally not considered for surgical therapy.