Frequency and distribution of lymph node metastases in epithelial ovarian cancer.

Background: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the incidence and distribution of nodal metastases in relation to the serous versus nonserous histological subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer.

Methods: Patients were treated primarily with upfront surgery, including pelvic and paraaortic systematic lymphadenectomy, up to the level of the left renal vein, before any kind of chemotherapy administration. Patients were classified according the tumor histology into 2 groups: serous (including the cases of mixed histology with a serous component) and nonserous group.