A comparison between lymphangiography and pelvic node dissection in the staging of prostatic cancer

On 40 consecutive patients with prostatic cancer who had pedal lymphangiography during the initial evaluation and, subsequently, underwent pelvic node dissection or biopsy, a surprisingly high number had falsely positive (59 per cent) or negative (36 per cent) x-ray findings. Initially the tumors were considered clinically to be stage B in 24 cases, stage C in 13 and stage D in 3. After lymph node dissection only 17 tumors were still considered to be stage B and 7 were stage C, while 16 tumors were actually stage D. This surgical staging is important for the further management of the patient as well as the prognosis, Pedal lymphangiogrpahy alone is unreliable for accurate assessment of the regional lymph node status in clinically localized prostatic cancer.