Sentinel lymphatic mapping among women with early-stage cervical cancer: A systematic review

The presence of pelvic lymph node metastases is without doubt the most significant prognostic factor that determines recurrences and survival of women with early-stage cervical cancer. To avoid the underdiagnosis of lymph node metastasis, pelvic lymphadenectomy procedure is routinely performed with radical hysterectomy procedure. However, the pelvic lymphadenectomy procedure may not be necessary in most of these women due to the relatively low incidence of pelvic lymph node metastasis. The removal of large numbers of pelvic lymph nodes could also render non-metastatic irreversible damages for these women, including vessel, nerve, or ureteral injuries; formation of lymphocysts; and lymphedema. Over the past decades, the concept of sentinel lymph node biopsy has emerged as a popular and widespread surgical technique for the evaluation of the pelvic lymph node status in gynecologic malignancies. The histological status of sentinel lymph node should be representative for all other lymph nodes in the regional drainage area. If metastasis is non-existent in the sentinel lymph node, the likelihood of metastatic spread in the remaining regional lymph nodes is very low. Further lymphadenectomy is therefore not necessary for a patient with negative sentinel lymph nodes. Since the uterine cervix has several lymphatic drainage pathways, it is a challenging task to assess the distribution pattern of sentinel lymph nodes in women with early-stage cervical cancer. This review article will adapt the methodology proposed in these studies to systematically review sentinel lymphatic mapping among women with early-stage cervical cancer.