Surgeons will normally remove the lymph nodes during surgery when a patient has Stage II or Stage III colon cancer. These stages refer to colon cancer that has penetrated the colon and entered the abdominal cavity. There may be spread of the cancer to local lymph nodes that need to be removed and biopsied.
An article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says that patients have improved survival when a greater number of lymph nodes are removed during surgery. Patients have anywhere from six to forty lymph nodes removed and evaluated. The question is -- What is the optimal number of lymph nodes to remove and evaluate?
A clinical study was conducted that involved nearly 62,000 patients. The researchers concluded that patients with Stage II or III colon cancer had significantly improved survival when more lymph nodes were removed.
The author of the study stated "These results support consideration of the number of lymph nodes evaluated as a measure of quality of colon care."
1. On lymph nodes removal,of which I dont fully understand the principle as our surgeon just removed fourteen inches of colon and mentioned removal of twenty nodes. Are these nodes all coming from the removed section or do they explore around the area in search of more? He never gave us a clear answer on tha question.
Posted at 12:08PM on Apr 6th 2007 by George Langelier