Affiliations of authors: Università "La Sapienza," Rome, Italy (PBP, NM); Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milan, Italy (AM, FL); Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick, Australia (NH); University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany (SA); Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Aviano, Italy (EC, LM); Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria (KT, RW); S. Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy (AP, TD, RSR, CM); Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy (SG); Università "Campus Biomedico," Rome, Italy (RA); Università Cattolica del "Sacro Cuore," Rome, Italy (GS); Laboratory of Clinical Cancer Research, Mario Negri Institute, Milan, Italy (RF, IF); Treviglio Hospital, Treviglio, Italy (RG); Spedali Civili di Brescia, Brescia, Italy (GF); Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy (FR); IFO-Istituto Regina Elena, Rome, Italy (DG)
Correspondence to: Roldano Fossati, MD, Istituto Mario Negri, Via Eritrea 62, 20157, Milan, Italy (e-mail: fossati{at}marionegri.it).
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ABSTRACT |
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INTRODUCTION |
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Primary cytoreductive surgery (i.e., the removal of as much of the tumor as possible at the time of initial surgery, with resection of bulky nodes only) has been an integral part of the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer since the observation that postoperative residual tumor is a clinically significant prognostic factor (2,3). A recent meta-analysis (4) has confirmed that maximal surgical cytoreduction is one of the most powerful determinants of cohort survival in International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage III-IV ovarian cancer.
Whether systematic removal of retroperitoneal lymph nodes should be part of maximal cytoreductive surgery is still unclear. Retroperitoneal lymph node involvement occurs in approximately 50% to 80% of women with advanced ovarian cancer (5). In 1988, in recognition of the prognostic importance of retroperitoneal spread, the FIGO staging classification was amended to include a substage for node involvement, (6). Subsequent work (79) has illuminated the relevant surgical anatomy, which has allowed for identification of the role and technical aspects of lymph node dissection and clarification of the nomenclature.
Although systematic lymphadenectomy has been shown to be feasible and safe in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer, its therapeutic role remains controversial. The core issue of the controversy is whether removal of the lymph nodes should be performed only to stage the disease or whether removal improves survival. In the former case, lymph node regions at risk would only be sampled, whereas in the latter case there would be a systematic effort to remove all accessible lymph node-bearing tissue. Retrospective studies (10,11) have suggested a clinically significant survival advantage following systematic lymphadenectomy in patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery for advanced disease; however, no prospective randomized clinical trial has been published. Therefore, in this study we conducted a multicenter, randomized clinical trial at 13 different sites in five countries to determine whether the addition of systematic aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy to optimal cytoreduction surgery within the peritoneal cavity improves progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival in patients with advanced ovarian cancer.
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PATIENTS AND METHODS |
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Patients with histologically proven and optimally debulked (i.e., residual tumor of 1 cm) epithelial ovarian carcinoma with FIGO stages IIIB and IIIC were eligible for participation in the study. Stage IV patients were eligible if the only evidence of stage IV disease was malignant cells in pleural effusion. Additional eligibility criteria included age of less than 75 years, Karnofsky performance status of
80, and no previous chemotherapy or radiation therapy. The study protocol was revised and accepted by local ethics committees, and appropriate written informed consent was obtained from all patients.
Randomization Procedures
Random assignment of patients, who had an equal probability of assignment to either treatment arm, was carried out by a block arrangement that balances the treatment assignment within each site. Randomization was performed centrally by telephone at seven sites (Monza, Milan [three sites], Aviano, Treviglio, and Padua) and with sealed envelopes at six sites (Rome, Graz, Erlangen, Brescia, Sydney, and Gateshead). Randomization codes were generated at the Mario Negri Institute, Milan. Patients were randomly assigned intraoperatively (i.e., the patient's envelope, which was identified by a registration number, was opened or a telephone call was made) at the end of primary cytoreductive surgery, only after the surgeon was sure the tumor was optimally debulked. Data from all eligible patients were analyzed for survival on an intention-to-treat basis.
Patient Characteristics
Pretreatment clinical and tumor characteristics and operative details were collected soon after surgery. Chemotherapy and initial follow-up data were collected 6 months after surgery, and further follow-up data were collected annually thereafter. Data were sent either to the Mario Negri Institute, Milan, or to the Campus Biomedico, Rome.
Surgical Procedures
Control arm.
Primary cytoreductive surgery was aimed at removing the primary tumor and any metastatic implants, including total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, radical omentectomy, appendectomy, and the attempted removal of all macroscopic intra-abdominal tumor (including all lymph nodes of 1 cm in diameter).
Systematic lymphadenectomy arm. Primary cytoreductive surgery as detailed for the control arm was followed by systematic pelvic and aortic lymphadenectomy. Pelvic lymphadenectomy dissection began at the origin of the external iliac vessels and continued caudally along the medial border of the psoas muscle, with the lower limit of the external iliac lymphadenectomy being represented by the deep inferior epigastric vessels. The lateral boundaries of the lymphadenectomy were delineated superficially by the fascia covering the psoas muscle and deeply by the fascia covering the internal obturator and levator ani muscles. The medial margin of the lymphadenectomy was represented by an imaginary plane parallel to the umbilical artery, the umbilico-pubic fascia, the bladder, and the rectum. The clearing of the obturator fossa began with mobilization of the superficial obturator nodes, which were removed en bloc (i.e., all together) with the lymphatic fatty tissue that had been previously separated from the internal iliac vessels to the origin of the internal pudendal vessels. Lymphadenectomy continued with the dissection of the deep obturator nodes and gluteal nodes. Pelvic lymphadenectomy was considered appropriate when at least 25 nodes were removed.
Aortic lymphadenectomy dissection began at the aortic bifurcation by removing the superficial intercavoaortic, precaval, and preaortic nodal groups. Lymph nodes located lateral to the vena cava (i.e., paracaval nodal group) were separated from the vena cava, and the renal capsule and psoas muscle were removed en bloc. Lymph nodes behind the vena cava (i.e., retrocaval nodal group) and the lumbar vessels (i.e., deep intercavo-aortic nodal group) were separated and removed from the prevertebral fascia after displacing the vena cava and the aorta laterally and medially. Removal of the cranial nodes, both behind and under the left renal vein, was performed after entering the plane between the Toldt's and Gerota's fasciae; mobilizing the descending colon from the renal capsule, the psoas muscle, and the ovarian pedicle; and displacing the ureter laterally. Aortic lymphadenectomy was considered appropriate when at least 15 nodes were removed.
Adjuvant Chemotherapy
After primary cytoreductive surgery, all patients, regardless of the trial arm, were recommended to have adjuvant treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients found to have progressive disease were provided with further treatment at the discretion of the treating physicianindividual investigator.
Statistical Analysis
The primary endpoint of this study was overall survival, defined as the time from randomization to death from any cause. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival, defined as the time from randomization to the earliest occurrence of progression or death from any cause, and surgical morbidity. In pretrial analysis, we calculated that, with a type I error limited to .05 (two-tailed test), a total of 440 patients would need to be accrued to afford 80% power to detect a 30% relative reduction in the mortality hazard rate of patients in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm (i.e., an increase in the 5-year survival rate from 45% to 57%, which corresponds to a hazard ratio [HR] of 0.7).
Survival curves were estimated by the KaplanMeier method (12) and compared using the log-rank test (13). We used KaplanMeier estimates of overall and progression-free survival in the no-lymphadenectomy arm at specific time points and the hazard ratio to calculate absolute benefits at those time points according to the following formula: absolute benefit = exp {HR x log[control survival]} control survival. Although this approach implicitly assumes proportional hazards, it is preferable to comparing differences between KaplanMeier survival curves of two groups at individual time points. In fact, the entire survival curve is a good summary of the survival experience of two groups, whereas individual points on the survival curves are often unreliable (14). Differences in median progression-free and overall survival times between the two groups were calculated in a similar way, except that we used the following formula: difference in medians = (control group median/HR) control group median. This approach assumes approximately exponentially distributed survival curves. Because absolute benefits at different time points or medians for PFS or OS were estimated using the same hazard ratio and its 95% confidence intervals (CIs), the P values of such estimates are the same as for the hazard ratios. Additional analyses were performed with the Cox proportional-hazards model adjusting for multiple baseline characteristics. Proportional hazards assumptions were checked by plotting log{log [S(t)]} against log t for each group and found to be satisfied (14).
Per trial protocol, progression-free survival and overall survival were also analyzed in only those patients who underwent appropriate surgical procedures (see Fig. 1). In this per-protocol analysis, survival analysis was performed on 195 control patients and 189 systematic lymphadenectomy patients. Comparison of proportions between groups was performed using a two-sided chi-square (2) test or, if the number of patients in a given category was less than five, a two-sided Fisher's exact test. Continuous data, including number of resected nodes, operating time, blood loss, and hospital stay, were expressed as medians with interquartile ranges and were compared using a two-sided KruskalWallis (nonparametric) test.
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RESULTS |
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Between January 1991 and May 2003, 452 patients were enrolled at 13 centers in five countries (Italy, 379 patients; Austria, 41 patients; Germany, 22 patients; Australia, 8 patients; and United Kingdom, 2 patients). After pathologic and clinical review, 25 patients were deemed ineligible. Figure 1 shows the trial flow diagram and details reasons for patient ineligibility.
Patient Characteristics
The clinical and tumor characteristics of eligible patients are listed in Table 1. Characteristics appear to be well balanced across treatment arms. Approximately 75% of patients (i.e., 328) had FIGO stage IIIC disease, and 96% of patients had residual disease of 1 cm. Data on residual tumor were missing for four patients, and the remaining 16 patients had residual tumors of >1 cm but <2 cm.
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Sixteen patients allocated to the no-lymphadenectomy arm had more than 25 pelvic or 15 lumbo-aortic nodes removed; conversely, 27 patients allocated to systematic lymphadenectomy had fewer than 25 pelvic or 15 lumbo-aortic nodes resected (Fig. 1). These 43 patients were excluded from the per-protocol survival analyses for inappropriate surgical treatment.
Table 2 shows the median number and interquartile range of resected nodes by treatment arm. In the systematic lymphadenectomy arm, the median number of removed pelvic and aortic lymph nodes was 28.5 (interquartile range = 22 to 41) and 23 (interquartile range = 16 to 32), respectively. Overall, the median number of removed nodes was 51.5 (interquartile range = 41 to 70) in the lymphadenectomy arm and 4 (interquartile range = 0 to 11) in the control arm. As a consequence of the high number of resected nodes in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm, more of these patients had positive nodes at histologic examination than patients in the no-lymphadenectomy arm (70% vs. 42%, P<.001).
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The vast majority of patients received adjuvant chemotherapy (94% in the control arm and 96% in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm) after cytoreductive surgery. No differences in chemotherapy schedules were found between the two trial arms; 93% of patients underwent platinum-based mono- (17%) or multi- (76%) agent chemotherapy regimens, and only 7% of patients received nonplatinum-based chemotherapy regimens. Taxol was used in combination with platinum-based agents in 39% of patients.
Progression-Free and Overall Survival
After a median follow-up of 68.4 months (interquartile range = 35.2 to 90.7 months), tumors had recurred in 292 patients (68.4%) and 202 patients (47.3%) had died, 11 without evidence of recurrent disease (2.6%). Site of disease recurrence by treatment arm is shown in Table 4; Figs. 2 and 3 depict progression-free and overall survival, respectively, for all eligible patients. Comparison of the KaplanMeier curves for occurrence of first event (Fig. 2) gave a hazard ratio of 0.76 (95% CI = 0.60 to 0.96, P = .02), which translated into increases in 3-year progression-free survival, from 31.6% to 41.6% (difference = 10.0%, 95% CI = 1.6% to 18.3%) and in 5-year progression-free survival, from 21.6% to 31.2% (difference = 9.6%, 95% CI = 1.5% to 21.6%). Median progression-free survival was 22.4 months (interquartile range = 11.8 to 52.0 months) for patients in the control arm and 27.4 months (interquartile range = 14.3 to 83.9 months) for patients in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm. When we calculated the improvement in median progression-free survival using the hazard ratio and median progression-free survival in the control arm, the difference was 7.0 months (95% CI = 1.0 to 14.4 months), i.e., it improved from 22.4 months to 29.4 months.
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Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed to adjust the treatment comparison for baseline characteristics (Table 5). When histologic grade and residual disease were taken into account, the hazard ratios for occurrence of first event and mortality from any cause were almost unchanged (i.e., 0.75 [95% CI = 0.59 to 0.94] and 0.97 [95% CI = 0.74 to 1.29], respectively).
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The prognostic value of positive aortic and/or pelvic lymph nodes in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm was also evaluated. The hazard ratio for death from any cause among patients with positive aortic and/or pelvic lymph nodes in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm (as compared with patients with negative nodes) was 1.61 (95% CI = 1.01 to 2.56). This increased mortality rate is in keeping with the observation that the metastatic involvement of aortic and pelvic nodes is a predictor of survival.
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DISCUSSION |
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Surgical management of patients with ovarian cancer is challenging, and systematic lymphadenectomy is a major surgical procedure. This study provides evidence that the procedure itself is feasible in the framework of a multicenter, randomized clinical trial. Women who received systematic lymphadenectomy had a higher incidence of postoperative complications, although almost all of these were mild, consisting of lymphocysts or lymphedema. The median operating time was about 90 minutes longer and the blood loss about 350 mL higher in the lymphadenectomy arm than in the control arm, and 12% more patients underwent a blood transfusion in the experimental group. There was no difference in the duration of postoperative hospital stay between trial arms, and no perioperative deaths occurred.
Empirical data supporting a therapeutic benefit of systematic lymphadenectomy in women with advanced ovarian cancer are largely indirect. Most of the early observational studies (4,10,1518) compared the survival of patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery and lymphadenectomy, which ranged from systematic lymphadenectomy to node sampling, with the survival of patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery only. These studies showed considerable differences in overall survival between groups, with all of the studies favoring lymphadenectomy (4,10,1518). These studies were limited, however, by small numbers of patients and a failure to reasonably account for selection bias. Selection bias creates a type of confounding that can occur because women undergoing successful systematic lymphadenectomy might have had a lower rate of comorbidity or a tumor with more favorable prognostic features than women undergoing node sampling or removal of bulky nodes only. The findings of this study are discordant with these early observational studies. Moreover, when we performed a per-protocol analysis that excluded patients in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm who did not fulfill the criteria for appropriate systematic lymphadenectomy (i.e., not enough nodes removed) and the patients in the control arm who did not fulfill the criteria for appropriate cytoreductive surgery (i.e., too many nodes removed), we were unable to detect any difference in overall survival between the two treatment arms (i.e., hazard ratios for mortality did not change). However, in this subanalysis, the risk of first event (i.e., disease recurrence or death) associated with systematic lymphadenectomy was further reduced (HR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.54 to 0.89), seemingly reaffirming the impact of systematic lymphadenectomy on the natural history of the disease.
The findings of this study confirm that there is a high prevalence of both pelvic and para-aortic lymph node metastases in patients with advanced ovarian cancer (5). The prevalence of lymph node involvement depends closely on the number of lymph nodes removed and examined. In this study, the proportion of patients with lymph node involvement was much higher in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm (70%) than in the control arm (42%). Given that, in the control arm, any clinically suspicious lymph nodes were removed, this difference in the proportion of patients with lymph node involvement may have been due to the low sensitivity and specificity of nodal size as an indicator of ovarian cancer metastases (19,20). An association between lymph node involvement and clinical outcome has been established (10), and patients with nodal metastases have a worse prognosis than patients with negative lymph nodes.
The unfavorable prognosis of patients with positive lymph nodes suggests either that nodal involvement is a marker of the tumor's biologic aggressiveness or that nodal metastases may be resistant to chemotherapy because of diminished blood supply, i.e., the "pharmacologic sanctuary" hypothesis (21). The data in this study do not support the latter hypothesis because lymph node involvement in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm remained a statistically significant negative prognostic factor (HR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.01 to 2.56) for overall survival.
This trial was designed to assess progression-free and overall survival as primary endpoints. We found that patients who underwent systemic lymphadenectomy had a 25% improvement in progression-free survival when compared with patients who had removal of bulky nodes only (HR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.59 to 0.94). However, this improvement in progression-free survival did not translate into an improvement in overall survival. Two possible explanations for this discrepancy are that 1) follow-up may have been too short and 2) there were differences in second-line chemotherapy. Median overall survival for both trial arms in this study was good because all patients had optimal residual disease at the completion of their cytoreductive surgery, in keeping with other studies (22). However, a longer follow-up will be needed before long-term survival values are definitive. In addition, although we did not track our patients for information on second-line chemotherapies, the median times to disease recurrence in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm (27.4 months) and control arm (22.4 months) suggest that most of the patients did not have platinum-resistant disease because the patients relapsed at least 6 months after first-line treatment. Indeed, only 11 more patients relapsed within 12 months from surgery in the control arm (51 patients) than in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm (40 patients). Hence, we do not expect differences in the use of second-line chemotherapy to be a confounding variable in this study because most patients would have received platinum-containing regimens. Therefore, it seems that second-line chemotherapies, with or without surgery at the time of relapse, may confer a survival benefit that is similar in the two trial arms and is independent of the length of the progression-free survival interval.
Maximal cytoreductive surgery remains a mainstay in the treatment of women with advanced ovarian cancer. The results of this study provide the first direct comparison of systematic lymphadenectomy with standard cytoreductive surgery (i.e., no lymphadenectomy). This study found that 1) the addition of systematic lymphadenectomy to cytoreductive surgery prolonged progression-free survival, which, in turn, may have an important impact on the quality of life of patients with advanced ovarian cancer; 2) systematic lymphadenectomy did not prolong overall survival, probably because effective platinum-based first- and second-line (with or without salvage surgery) chemotherapies might have diluted the impact of systematic lymphadenectomy on the risk of death; and 3) patients in the systematic lymphadenectomy arm had a higher number of nodal metastases than patients in the no-lymphadenectomy arm. The superior assessment of node status in patients undergoing systematic lymphadenectomy could help refine the prognosis of patients with advanced ovarian cancer and to tailor their follow-up. Moreover, surgical treatments for advanced ovarian cancer patients, including systematic lymphadenectomy, should be performed in selected institutions that specialize in gynecologic oncology care to minimize the risk of surgical morbidity.
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Manuscript received August 31, 2004; revised February 15, 2005; accepted March 1, 2005.
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