The impact of low volume lymph node metastases and stage migration after pathologic ultrastaging of non-sentinel lymph nodes in early-stage cervical cancer: a study of 54 patients with 4.2 years of follow up.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the significance of pathologic ultrastaging (PU) of sentinel (SLN) and non-sentinel (nSLN) lymph nodes (LNs) and the influence on cancer staging in patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IA2-IB1 cervical cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted with 54 patients divided into two equal-sized groups. In test group (n1), at least one SLN/patient was detected with blue dye. All excised LNs in this group were subjected to PU (4 μm slices/150 μm intervals) with hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry (AE1-AE3 antibodies). In none of the control group (n2) was PU performed, but in 2 patients SLN concept was performed. Patients in both groups underwent radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy. The effect of PU was expressed in puTNM and compared with both standard pTNM and FIGO systems. The influence of PU on patients' disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves.

RESULTS

In total, 516 LNs were extracted (66 SLNs, 36% bilaterally). Micrometastases (MIC) or isolated tumor cells (ITC) were detected in 34 of the 482 LNs (7.1%), including 16 MICs and 9 ITC in non-SLNs. False negative rates were: 3.7%/side-specific, and 7.4%/both sides. The use of PU resulted in stage change in 2 cases (N and M status change), FIGO stage did not changed. No PU impact on DFS or OS was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

The risk of TNM stage migration in early cervical cancer is low, is more likely in inattentively evaluated patients, and has indeterminate prognostic and predictive value. Selection of cases with cT ≤ 2 cm and cN0 is sufficient to avoid the risk of improper staging.