title: Laparoscopic staging of early ovarian carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A European randomized trial on early stage ovarian cancer confirmed the importance of accurate staging to select candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy. Since early-stage disease is often discovered incidentally, staging is not always carried out or inadequately performed at the time of primary surgery. Laparoscopy was reported more than 10 years ago as a method of performing the staging procedure while avoiding the morbidity from a classical midline incision.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Several teams have recently published their results on laparoscopic staging. Updated results of an earlier series in addition to other recent studies are discussed. All highlight the advantages and limits of the method.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Complete laparoscopic management seems feasible in selected cases of apparently early stage ovarian cancer. Re-staging procedures remain an ideal indication for laparoscopy in early adnexal carcinomas. Due to the critical nature of the information obtained, this approach should only be reserved for teams trained in advanced laparoscopy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecological Oncology, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France. e-leblanc@o-lambert.fr
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leblanc
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sonoda
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Narducci
authors.forename: Gwenael
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ferron
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Querleu
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000473:pathology; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D018312:Sex Cord-Gonadal Stromal Tumors / Q000473:pathology