Ideal Lymph Node Number for Ovarian Malignancies

Although there are studies in which the ideal number of lymph nodes for early-stage ovarian cancer is specified, no study has been found on the number of lymph nodes that should ideally be removed by systematic lymph node dissection, including advanced-stage patients. The present study was aimed to retrospectively investigate the number of lymph nodes that need to be removed to detect lymph node positivity and the effect of this number on prognosis.

A total of 155 patients over the age of 18 who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer without secondary malignancy and who underwent surgical lymph node dissection were included in the study between 2015 and 2020.

A total of 155 patients underwent lymphadenectomy and the median number of removed lymph nodes was 24. Lymph node positivity was detected in 72 (46.4%) of these patients, while the median number of positive lymph nodes was 4 in the lymph node-positive group. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the number of lymph nodes removed and the median overall survival (OS) (r = 0.546, p<0.001). At the same time, when the number of 24 lymph nodes, which is the median number of lymph nodes removed and the value found to detect lymph node positivity in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, is taken as cut off; mean OS was found to be statistically significantly higher in the group with adequate lymph node dissection compared to the group with insufficient lymph node dissection (46.46±35.22 vs 22.33±21.43; p < 0.001, respectively).

it was shown that more than 24 lymph nodes are required for adequate lymph node dissection in the patients included in the study, and thus it can contribute positively to the prognosis. With the support of more comprehensive and prospective studies conducted on this subject to this study, clearer data will emerge about the number of lymph nodes that should be removed in an ideal surgery.