[An evaluation of scalene lymph node metastasis in patients with gynecologic malignancies]

From 1981, through 1985, 90 patients with primary or recurrent gynecologic malignancies underwent a scalene lymph nodes (SLN) biopsy. Pelvic lymph nodes (PN) and paraaortic lymph nodes (PAN) also were examined for metastasis with CT, lymphography, and palpation or were biopsied after a laparotomy. Twenty-three of these 90 patients (25.6%) were found to have positive SLN. In 5 of these 23 (21.7%), their SLN had not been palpable on physical examination. All signs of PN, PAN and SLN were examined in 42 patients. Twenty-one of these 42 (50%) had positive PN, 14 (66.7%) had positive PAN, and 4 (28.6%) had positive SLN. Seven patients with negative PAN had no SLN metastasis. Of twenty-one patients with negative PN, 2 had positive PAN and none had an SLN metastasis. Thus, it has been concluded that an evaluation of SLN is important for the management of a gynecologic malignancy in patients with positive PAN.