The benefit of sentinel lymph node evaluation in pre-operative grade 1 endometrial cancer
1Citations
Debate is ongoing whether patients with pre-operative grade 1 endometrial cancer should undergo surgery by gynecologists without lymph node assessment. The objective of this study is to evaluate the value of having the surgery performed by a gynecologic oncologist with sentinel lymph node assessment. Single-center retrospective cohort study on patients who underwent robotic surgery for endometrial cancer between 2011-2020. All consecutive cases with grade 1 endometrioid cancer on pre-operative biopsy were included. Sentinel lymph nodes assessment was systematically performed. We defined clinical impact as the proportion of cases where pelvic lymph node status knowledge led to a change in adjuvant therapy. The study cohort included 383 patients. The median age and body mass index were 62 (range; 30-92) years and 32.5 (range; 16.9-85.6) kg/m Surgical staging with sentinel lymph nodes for pre-operative grade 1 endometrioid endometrial carcinoma, when done by a gynecologic oncologist, offers substantial clinical benefit by informing adjuvant treatment decisions based on lymph node status, avoiding overtreatment, with its inherent side effects, and undertreatment, which may affect oncological outcomes.