[Surgical staging and lymph node status in patients with invasive cervical cancer]

Lymph node matastases (LNM) are the most important prognostic factor of the cervical cancer regardless the stage and other prognostic factors. Lymph node status is the basis for tailoring the management strategies. In negative for metastases lymph nodes adjuvant radiotherapy can be omitted, as well as the risk for complications. LNM can be detected by histopathologic examination after meticulous lymphadenectomy. Other methods for detection of LNM such as PET/CT, CT, MRI, frozen section, sentinel lymph node biopsy have low sensitivity.