Clinical analysis of the impact of systematic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy on the prognosis of patients with early-stage ovarian cancer (stage IA–IIA): a propensity score matching study

The role of systematic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy (PPAL) in completion staging surgery for early-stage (stage I-IIA) ovarian cancer (EOC) remains controversial. This study evaluates the impact of PPAL on the prognosis of EOC patients. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Patients with EOC (stage I-IIA) were included. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used at a 1:1 ratio based on age, marital status, race, tumor grade, histological type, FIGO stage, and postoperative adjuvant therapy. Post-matching overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were compared between the systematic PPAL group (pathological staging) and the non-lymphadenectomy group (clinical staging). After PSM, no significant differences were observed in OS (p=0.140) and CSS (p=0.066) between the two groups. Subgroup analysis showed that for tumor grade III patients, the pathological staging group had significantly higher OS (p=0.028) and CSS (p=0.010) than the clinical staging group. Multivariate Cox regression indicated that tumor grade III was an independent prognostic factor for OS (p=0.006) and CSS (p=0.020). Systematic PPAL does not significantly improve survival in EOC patients. However, for tumor grade III patients, the pathological staging group demonstrates significantly better prognosis, offering a more personalized alternative to routine staging surgery, which requires further validation through prospective trials.