Assessment of the Diagnostic Value of Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping with Blue Dye (Blue Methylene) with Complete Lymph Node Dissection for Endometrial Cancer Staging Surgery (a Multicenter, Prospective, Cross-Sectional Study)

Abstract

In gynecological cancers, sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping has been proposed as an alternative to complete lymph node dissection. The goal of this study was to determine sentinel lymph node mapping's sensitivity, specificity, NPV, and PPV versus gold standard surgery (complete lymph node dissection) in patients with metastatic illness. A total of 26 patients were prospectively enrolled from spring 2021 to winter 2022. Sentinel lymph node mapping with complete pelvic lymph node dissection was done in all of them, and para-aortic lymphadenectomy was detected in 11 (43.33%) patients. At least one sentinel lymph node was successfully mapped in 22 (84.6%) patients. Three patients (11.5%) had positive lymph nodes, with an 85.7% sensitivity (95 percent CI) to detect node positive illness, a specificity of 74.93%, an NPV of 99.6 (99.5 CI), and a PPV of 5.9% calculated. There were no serious adverse effects due to blue dye. The accuracy rate of sentinel lymph node mapping by methylene blue was 75.1%.