Role of lymphadenectomy in the treatment of bladder cancer

The value of pelvic lymphadenectomy in patients undergoing cystectomy for bladder cancer continues to remain controversial. It has been the authors' policy to perform a complete bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy on all patients for whom radical cystectomy is potentially curative. They discuss distribution and incidence of nodal disease, limits of pelvic node dissection, the technique of pelvic lymphadenectomy, and their results.