title: Pelvic and paraortic lymph nodal status in advanced ovarian cancer and survival.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In order to analyze the prognostic role of node involvement in advanced ovarian cancer, we have analyzed data from a randomized clinical trial on advanced ovarian cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cases were 456 women who entered a randomized multicentric clinical trial comparing two cisplatin-based schemes of treatment after cytoreductive surgery for advanced stage III-IV ovarian cancer. They underwent selective pelvic and/or paraortic lymphadenectomy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 161 (35.3%) cases had positive nodes. The frequency of positive nodes was statistically significantly higher in FIGO stage IV than in stage III. Also grade 3 tumors were more likely to have positive nodes than grade 1-2 tumors. No association was observed between nodal status and response to chemotherapy. The 3-year survival was 46.2 (standard error (SE) = 3.4 based on 147 deaths) and 44.6 (SE = 4.4, based on 84 deaths), respectively, in negative and positive node groups. The corresponding values, when the analysis was performed considering only subjects with residual tumor <1 cm or absent, after first-line cytoreductive surgery were 66.2 (SE = 5.7) and 62.4 (SE = 9.6).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We did not find any association between nodal status and survival. Particularly, nodal status was not a prognostic factor for survival in the subgroup of women with residual tumor <1 cm or absent after cytoreductive surgery.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Università di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Parazzini
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valsecchi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bolis
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guarnerio
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reina
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Polverino
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Silvestri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D010388:Pelvis; D011379:Prognosis; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015996:Survival Rate