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Objective: The aim of this study was to determine oncological outcomes and incidence of lymph node (LN) metastases in women who underwent systematic pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy for surgical staging of apparent stage I low-grade epithelial ovarian cancer (LGEOC)., Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was performed at nine institutions across Europe and the US, and patients who underwent surgical staging for presumed stage I LGEOC between 2000 and 2016 were included. To ensure surgical quality, a minimum number of ≥10 pelvic and ≥10 paraaortic LNs was required. Patients with preoperative radiologic or clinical evidence of extraovarian or LN disease, and those with nonepithelial histology, were excluded., Results: The overall incidence of LN metastases was 4.3% in the 163 evaluated patients, and the incidence of LN involvement in serous, endometrioid, and mucinous subtypes was 10.7, 1.5, and 0%, respectively. However, Upstaging due to LN involvement alone occurred in only 2.4% of the patients. Eighty-nine (54.6%) patients received adjuvant chemotherapy due to International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IC or higher disease. The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 93.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 89.4-97.1%) and 94.5% (95% CI 90.9-98.0%), respectively. There was no significant difference in PFS or OS between LN-negative and LN-positive patients. However, fewer patients received adjuvant chemotherapy in the LN-negative group. Multivariate analysis did not identify any independent prognostic factor of survival., Conclusion: The risk of LN involvement in nonserous apparent stage I LGEOC appears low, with a rate of <1% in this retrospective analysis, raising questions about the value of lymphadenectomy in those patients. Larger-scale prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the oncologic safety of omitting systematic LN staging in apparent stage I nonserous LGEOC.

Robotic surgery is a new technology that has been progressively implemented to treat endometrial and cervical cancer. However, the use of robotic surgery for ovarian cancer is limited to a few series of cases and comparative studies with laparoscopy or laparotomy. The technical issues concerning robotic surgery, as well as clinical evidence, are described in this review. Robotic surgery in early stage, advanced stage, and relapsed ovarian cancer is discussed separately. In conclusion, evidence regarding the use of robotic-assisted surgical treatment for women with ovarian cancer is still scarce, but its use is progressively growing. Robotic-assisted staging in selected patients with early stage disease has an important role in referral institutions when well-trained gynecologists perform surgeries. However, minimally invasive surgery in patients with advanced stage or relapsed ovarian cancer requires further investigation, even in selected cases., (Copyright © 2016 AAGL. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)