Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Early-Stage Ovarian Cancer

June 25, 2023 updated by: Mustafa Albayrak, Istanbul University

Efficacy of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Early-Stage Ovarian Cancer

The primary goal of this prospective study is to define the efficacy of the sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) procedure by comparing it to the results obtained from systematic lymphadenectomy, each performed in participants with a suspicious adnexal mass for early-stage ovarian cancer.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of mortality among gynecologic cancers. Although most women are diagnosed at advanced stage, about 20% are can be diagnosed at an earlier stage. Treatment and prognosis depends on the correct assessment of stage of the apparently early stage (Stage I and II). About 10-30% of apparently early stage ovarian cancer patients are upstaged based on the final pathology report. Detection of positive lymph node is an important contributor for upstaging of apparently early stage ovarian cancer. However, systematic lymphadenectomy carries immediate and long term risks for patients including bleeding, massive transfusions, prolongation of operation time, serious major vessel and major abdominal organ injury and death. These risks are especially increased in paraaortic lymphadenectomy which is an integral part of staging procedure in early ovarian cancer.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) procedure is the biopsy of one or two lymph node(s) which represents the lymph node basin draining the area of malignancy. This biopsy may potentially eliminate the need systemic pelvic / paraaortic lymphadenectomy. Although SLNB became an integral and accepted procedure in endometrium and cervix cancers, available data on the SLNB for ovarian cancer is limited and is in its infancy to be incorporated in routine practice of ovarian cancer surgery.

So, investigators aim to compare the effectiveness of SLNB procedure results with systematic lymphadenectomy, both performed in each participant, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy.

Technically, 2-4 mL of sterile black carbon stain is carefully injected beneath the adnexal mass just under peritoneal covering of mesovarium or infundibulopelvic ligament avoiding intravascular injection before removal of suspicious adnexal mass for frozen section. This is done classically through a laparotomy incision but can also be performed laparoscopically via a needle introduced transcutaneously into the base of adnexa under optical supervision. 10-15 minute interval is allowed before resection of adnexal mass for frozen section. A peritoneal incision and pelvic and paraaortic retroperitoneal dissection is carried out for identification of major vessels and important surgical landmarks (abdominal ureters, gonadal vessels, inferior mesenteric artery and etc.) up to the left renal vein to visually detect the sentinel lymph node(s) stained in black. Lymphatic vessels are carefully eliminated visually not to be biopsied instead of sentinel lymph node. An additional 2 mL injection is allowed if a SLN could not be detected before systematic lymphadenectomy, adnexectomy and other surgical staging procedures. Frozen section of a adnexal mass is carried out thereafter following the detection and biopsy of SLN. Systematic lymphadenectomy is abandoned in case of a non-malignant frozen section result.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

100

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Must have a suspicious adnexal mass for early stage ovarian cancer

Must be medically and surgically fit enough to perform SLNB and complete the systematic lymphadenectomy.

-

Exclusion Criteria:

Ovarian mass with low probability for early stage ovarian cancer.

Medical or surgical contraindications for surgical comprehensive staging.

Metastatic cancers or double primary cancers (metachronous) of ovary

Recurrent ovarian cancer

Preoperative or intraoperative finding of advanced ovarian cancer (FİGO stage III and IV)

Neoadjuvant ovarian cancer

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy and Systematic Lymph Node Dissection (Single Arm)
This is a single arm interventional study in which the interventional and control arms are the same participant (each participant becomes its own control since the sentinel node biopsy- interventional arm - results are to be compared to systematic lymphadenectomy results-control arm). Intervention is injection of 2-4 mL sterile charcoal to the infundibulopelvic ligament or mesovarium of the suspicious adnexal mass followed by collection of stained sentinel lymph nodes and lymph nodes by systematic lymphadenectomy.
Described in previous sections
Other Names:
  • Systematic lymphadenectomy

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Efficacy of sentinel lymph node biopsy in highly suspicious adnexal masses for early-stage ovarian cancer
Time Frame: From the day of surgery to final pathology report (two weeks)
Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value for sentinel lymph biopsy results (compared to lymph nodes collected by systemic lenfadenopathy) will be calculated. These calculations will be expressed in percentages and will be compared using appropriate statistical method.
From the day of surgery to final pathology report (two weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 15, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 15, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 15, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 9, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 25, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

July 3, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 3, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 25, 2023

Last Verified

June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1740514

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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