BENEFITS AND COMPLICATIONS OF LAPAROSCOPIC PELVIC LYMPHADENECTOMY FORDETECTION OF STAGE D1 PROSTATE-CANCER - A MULTICENTER EXPERIENCE

One hundred fifty-eight consecutive patients with clinically localized prostate cancer were submitted to staging laparoscopic pelvic lymphad enectomy (LPL) at 5 cooperative centers with one or more of the follow ing conditions which were considered as risk factors for nodal disease : clinical stage C (or T3) disease, serum prostate-specific antigen > 20 ng/ml, Gleason sum > 6. The mean number of lymph nodes removed was 11 (range 2-29). Metastases from prostate cancer were found in 41 pati ents (25.9%). The proportion of lymph node-positive patients increases significantly with the presence of one, two or three of the condition s considered as risk factors (p < 0.00005). The benefit of LPL is limi ted to the lymph node-positive patients who can be spared a second ope ration.