Laparoscopic staging of early ovarian carcinoma.
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.
Leblanc
Eric
E
Department of Gynecological Oncology, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France. e-leblanc@o-lambert.fr
Sonoda
Yukio
Y
Narducci
Fabrice
F
Ferron
Gwenael
G
Querleu
Denis
D
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