Detection of micrometastases in pelvic lymph nodes of patients with ovarian cancer and its clinical significance

Objectives: Detection of tumor micrometastases in resected pelvic lymph nodes of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer to obtain reliable information concerning nodal status for clinical and pathological importance. Methods:Tissue paraffin emboded blocks of 33 primary herds and 187 pelvic lymph nodes from 34 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer were examined by immunohistochemical staining using monoclonalantibody of anticytokeratins(CK18) and by HE staining respectivly. Results:Thirty three Tissue of primary herds were cytokeratin(CK) positive. Thirty one lymph nodes(16.6%)in 12 patients( 36.4 %) were CK positive,and 17 lymph nodes(9.1%) in 12 cases had micrometastases.But only 14 lymph nodes metastases(7.5%) was found in 7 cases(21.2%) by HE staining, among which there were 2 lymph nodes(1.1%)in 2 patients(6.3%) had micrometastases( P 0.01). The cases with HE positive were CK positive too,the micrometastases in 5 cases was detected by CK staining in 26 cases who were HE negative. The results also showed the lymph node micrometastase was correlated with clinical stage,cell differentiation and survival time in patients with ovarian cancer. Conclusions:The data suggested that the immunohistochemical technique can significantly facilitate the detection of micrometastatic tumor cells in lymph nodes.The frequency of pelvic lymphnode micrometastases may have signifcant impact on the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer.