[Evaluation of para-aortic lymph node metastases in patients with cervical cancer]

From 1979 to 1986, 355 patients with cervical cancer underwent paraaortic lymph node (PAN) biopsy before the start of initial treatment. Nineteen of these 355 patients (5.4%) had a positive PAN, and the percentage incidence of positive PAN in each clinical stage was as follow: stage Ib, 2.4%; IIa, 0%; IIb, 3.7%; IIIb, 19.0%; and IV, 20%. Eighteen of these 19 patients also had positive pelvic lymph nodes. Positive PANs were found to be more frequent in cases of an adenocarcinoma than in cases of squamous cancer. The palpation of the PANs seemed to be too insufficient to predict the metastasis. Patients with positive PAN who had received paraaortic irradiation survived longer than those who did not receive such treatment. It is concluded that the evaluation of the PAN is important for the management of a cervical cancer.