[The clinical significance of retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis and lymphadenectomy on 3-year survival in ovarian carcinoma].

Fifty-two patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer received surgical treatment and chemotherapy at the Hospital of Shiga University of Medical Science and retroperitoneal lymph node metastases were evaluated clinico-pathologically. Forty patients underwent paraaortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy, although 12 patients with stage IIIc underwent no lymphadenectomy. In the patients with lymphadenectomy, stage I and II groups had 100% of 3-year survival, stage III group, 40.0% and stage IV group, 0.0%. A series of 27 patients with stage IIIc diagnosed from findings in the abdominal cavity had cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy including cisplatinum, and were evaluated for 3-year survival. No significant difference in the survival rate was found between the stage IIIc groups with and without para-aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy. The most important prognostic factors for 3-year survival were retroperitoneal lymph node metastases, complete remission, and residual tumor at second surgery. A three year survival analysis confirmed that para-aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy is not an important procedure for the treatment for stage III ovarian cancer. However, retroperitoneal lymph node metastases was one of the most important prognostic factors.