Does the extent of lymphadenectomy and the presence of positive lymphadenopathy influence survival and disease-free interval after left hemicolectomy?

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer currently represents the second leading cause of cancer death in men and the third in women. It is known that approximately one third of these patients will relapse after treatment. It is known that patients with negative lymph nodes have a longer survival than those with tumour lymph nodes. However, the extent of lymphadenectomy in left colectomy is controversial, perhaps because of its technical difficulty. In our study we wanted to relate the extent of lymphadenectomy and the presence of tumour lymphadenopathy to survival time and disease-free interval.