Lymph node involvement in clinically apparent early ovarian cancer: a prospective study

Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify the lymph node involvement in apparently early ovarian cancer (OC) Materials and Methods: Patients with clinically apparent early OC who underwent staging surgery between August 2012 and August 2015 were prospectively identified. Patients' characteristics and tumor histopathology were evaluated. Results: Twenty consecutive patients were operated for grossly apparent early ovarian carcinoma. All patients were surgically staged and underwent a systematic pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy. There were eight patients (40%) with lymph node involvement. One of the eight lymph node metastasis was solely in para-aortic node, three patients had both positive-pelvic and aortic nodes, and the other metastasis was in ipsilateral pelvic lymph node. Positive lymph node involvement was significantly higher among patients with poorly differentiated tumor grade (62.5%) (p = 0.02). Conclusion: All patients diagnosed with early OC macroscopically confined to the ovaries should be considered for comprehensive staging including pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy.