The risk of recurrence in endometrial cancer patients with low-volume metastasis in the sentinel lymph nodes: a retrospective multi-institutional study

Abstract

The surgical management of apparent early-stage endometrial cancer is still unclear. Nodal involvement is prognostic, but the role of retroperitoneal staging is still debated. Sentinel node mapping has been introduced and accepted as a valid alternative to full lymphadenectomy. Furthermore, ultrastaging provides a more accurate analysis of the excised lymph nodes by detecting a higher rate of low-volume metastasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of low-volume metastasis on recurrence-free survival in women with apparent early-stage endometrial cancer in a large retrospective multi-institutional collaboration.The aim of this study was to assess the impact of low-volume metastasis (LVM) on disease-free survival (DFS) in women with apparent early-stage endometrial cancer (EC) who underwent sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping. Patients with pre-operative early-stage EC were retrospectively collected from an international collaboration including 13 referring institutions. A total of 1428 patients were included in this analysis. One hundred and eighty-six patients (13%) had lymph node involvement. Fifty-nine percent of positive SLN exhibited micrometastases, 26.9% micrometastases, and 14% isolated tumor cells. Seventeen patients with positive lymph nodes did not receive any adjuvant therapy. At a median follow-up of 33.3 months, the disease had recurred in 114 women (8%). Patients with micrometastases in the lymph nodes had a worse prognosis of disease-free survival compared to patients with negative nodes or LVM. The rate of recurrence was significantly higher for women with micrometastases than those with low-volume metastases (HR = 2.61; p = 0.01). The administration of adjuvant treatment in patients with LVM, without uterine risk factors, remains a matter of debate and requires further evaluation.