The role of laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy for the staging of prostate cancer

A total of 28 patients with clinically localized prostate cancer have undergone laparoscopic pelvic staging lymphadenectomy. In 21% of the patients pelvic lymph node metastases were diagnosed. If the Gleason score on needle biopsy was less than 6, the likelihood of lymph node metastases was 15%, whereas 50% of patients with a Gleason score of 6 or more had lymph node spreading. Whatever cutoff was used, the preoperative PSA value unreliable to predict the regional nodal status.