Pelvic lymph node dissection for invasive bladder cancer

Abstract

From 1979 through 1988, 64 men and 16 women (age range 36-82; mean 63 years) with bladder cancer underwent pelvic lymph node dissection and radical cystectomy with urinary diversion. Bilateral common iliac, external iliac, internal iliac, obturator and presacral nodes were removed and examined. The frequency of involvement of each nodal group was the highest at the common iliac and the external iliac nodes followed by the obturator, presacral and internal iliac nodes. The incidence of lymph node metastasis increased with the tumor grade and pathological stage. The incidence of positive nodes is 3.7% in patients with P1 tumors, 10% in P2, and 17% in P3 tumors. Of these patients, 9 were with nodal metastasis; seven died of metastatic cancer 3 to 37 months post-operatively, two were alive for 4 to 41 months without evidence of recurrence. The mean survival time was significantly longer than that of the historical control group (1975-1978 total cystectomy without node dissection).