Morbidity of diaphragmatic surgery for advanced ovarian cancer: retrospective study of 148 cases.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of Advanced Ovarian Cancer (AOC) includes surgery with complete cytoreduction, one of the strongest prognostic factors. To achieve complete cytoreduction, diaphragmatic surgery is often required. There is currently a lack of information in the literature regarding the morbidity and impact of this type of surgery. The aim of this study is to report specific pulmonary morbidity and overall morbidity associated with diaphragmatic surgery in patients with AOC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a multicentric (6 centres), retrospective study that included 148 patients operated on between 2004 and 2008. Patient characteristics, surgical course and postoperative complications were collected. RESULTS: The complete cytoreduction rate was 84%. The surgery was categorised by timing as initial, interval or recurrence surgery in 38%, 51% and 11% of patients, respectively. In 69% of patients, one or more postoperative complications occurred: pulmonary complication (42%), digestive fistula (7%) or lymphocyst (18%). The pulmonary complications were pleural effusion (37%), pulmonary embolism (5%), pneumothorax (4%) and pulmonary infection (2%). These complications required revision surgery, pleural evacuation, or lymphocyst evacuation in 13%, 14%, and 11% of the cases, respectively. Postoperative mortality was 3%. Risk factors for pulmonary complications were the addition of extensive upper surgery to the diaphragmatic surgery (p = 0.014) and the size of the diaphragmatic resection (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Diaphragmatic surgery achieved complete removal of the tumour but resulted in pulmonary complications in addition to complications of radical surgery.

The role of lymph node resection in ovarian cancer: analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.

OBJECTIVE: The therapeutic role of lymphadenectomy on the survival in patients with ovarian cancer is controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival impact of lymphadenectomy, depending on the disease stage and extent of the surgery. DESIGN: The surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) registry provided ovarian cancer data from 17 registries. SETTING: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. POPULATION: The study population comprised 49,783 patients. METHODS: Survival was studied according to the number of lymph nodes removed, with stratifications on disease stage and extent of surgery. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The 5-year cause-specific survival rate. RESULTS: The median follow up for patients alive at the last follow-up visit was 39 months. The five-year cause-specific survival rates were 37, 62, and 71% for the groups in which no lymph nodes were examined, in which between one and nine nodes were examined, and in which ten or more nodes were examined, respectively (P< 0.001). Avoiding lymphadenectomy was deleterious in all stages of the disease. It was maximal for International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage-II patients, but there was no significant interaction between stage and extent of lymphadenectomy. The cause-specific survival was found to significantly increase when more nodes were resected, even if the surgical procedure consisted of debulking surgery or a pelvic exenteration. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests a beneficial effect of lymphadenectomy in epithelial ovarian tumours, regardless of the stage of disease and extent of surgery. However, potential biases inherent to this retrospective methodology, such as staging migration, defining the extent of residual disease, and the possibility that thorough lymphadenectomy may reflect the quality of cytoreductive surgery, preclude any formal conclusions on the therapeutic role of lymphadenectomy.