Does body mass index affect lymph node retrieval in colon resection for cancer?

Abstract

13571 Background: The management of colon cancer is a multidisciplinary effort that begins with adequate staging centered around the assessment of lymphatic spread. Multiple research groups have studied the number of lymph nodes retrieved and its relation with the outcome of patients with colon cancer, reporting better outcome in patients with a higher number of nodes retrieved. It has been well established that fatty tissue makes lymph node recovery difficult.Our objective was to evaluate if Body Mass Index (BMI) is associated with the number of lymph nodes retrieved, age, stage or location of the tumor. Methods: Retrospective chart review of patient who underwent colon resection for cancer between January 2001 to January 2005. Demographics, BMI and pathologic findings were recorded. Results: 395 patients had diagnosis of colon cancer, 140 underwent surgical procedures for these malignancies. Only 127 patients had complete records. The average age was 72 years. The average lymph node retrieval was 11.4. There was a significant relation between nodes harvested and specimen length (p 0.0028), age (p 0.0011), and stage IV cancer (p 0.002). There was no significant relationship between lymph node retrieval and BMI (p 0.1), location of the tumor (p 0.6) or stage I, II or III. Conclusion: We did not find any statistically significant correlation between BMI and lymph node retrieval, confirming reports that indicate the necessity of adequate lymph node harvest in patients with colon cancer for adequate staging and treatment. This may be because this study was done at a non-specialized center and because the operations were done by a number of different surgeons and the histopathology by numerous pathologists. The relation of improved lymph node harvest with greater specimen length supports other studies that point toward surgical and pathologic techniques as the most important factors in the appropriate staging of colon cancers. Hence, standardized surgical and histopathologic techniques need to be employed for harvesting adequate numbers of lymph nodes in resection specimens because number of nodes is critical to therapy, and an insufficient numbers of nodes may have a detrimental impact on colon cancer patient outcome. A prospective study should be performed in order to confirm the results of this study. No significant financial relationships to disclose.