Is Lymphatic Mapping in Uterine Cancer Feasible?

Excerpt

In virtually every solid tumor, the disease status of regional lymph nodes is one of the most important prognostic factors for survival as well as a significant determinant of which patients receive adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiation. Although many readers of the Annals of Surgical Oncology are intimately familiar with lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy in patients with melanoma or breast cancer, the validation and adoption of these techniques are still in their infancy in most other solid tumors. Gynecologic oncologists were among the first to begin investigating these procedures in the early 1990s. However, over 15 years later, we still do not utilize these procedures routinely as standard of care for women with cancers of the reproductive tract. …