Systemic pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy and prognostic significance in advanced epithelial ovarian malignancies: A meta-analysis and research

We designed to evaluate the influence of pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy in the prognosis of advanced epithelial ovarian cancers. The test group was treated with lymphadenectomy after cytoreductive surgery and the control group was treated only with cytoreductive surgery. The 3-year overall survival (OS), 5-year OS, and incidence of perioperative complications were considered as index. A total of 5 studies involving 899 patients met the inclusion criteria. Comparison revealed the following: there was no significant difference for the 3-year OS (RR = 1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.94~1.20, P = 0.35) and 5-year OS (RR = 1.17, 95%CI: 0.98~1.39, P = 0.08); incidence of perioperative complications of the test group was significantly higher (RR = 1.58, 95%CI: 1.15~2.18, P = 0.005) than that of control group. In conclusion, pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy after cytoreductive surgery cannot significantly improve the patient survival, but can significantly increase the incidence of perioperative complications.