Improving Outcomes of Gynecologic Cancer Surgery: Moving Away from Wide Regional Lymphadenectomy

Cancer surgery often includes regional lymph node resection to identify metastatic disease, and the two chief methods are regional lymphadenectomy and sentinel node biopsy. In a retrospective cohort study of 2237 vulvar cancer cases from 2006 to 2015 in the Perspective database, researchers assessed trends in the use of these two techniques for vulvar cancer surgery. For sentinel node biopsy in this case series, isosulfan or methylene blue dye or radioactive colloid (or a combination of these agents) were injected into the dermis of the vulva to identify the lymph nodes actively draining the cancer.

Use of sentinel lymph node biopsy among vulvar cancer cases increased from 17% in 2006 to 39% in 2015. Most sentinel lymph node biopsies were pe…