Low-volume regional lymph node metastasis in endometrial cancer - 2024 update

Abstract

Due to the implementation of sentinel lymph node ultrastaging, the prevalence of isolated tumor cells and micrometastases have increased. This literature review comprises of articles published between January 2019 and September 2024 aiming at low-volume metastases in regional lymph nodes, their prognosis, and links to molecular classification. Micrometastases are currently considered as having metastatic lymph node involvement; however, they have a better prognosis than macrometastases. Accordingly, therapy is tailored. In contrast, isolated tumor cell presence is not considered metastatic involvement according to International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2023 staging and does not affect the therapeutic procedure because their significant prognostic importance has not been proven so far.

Keywords: endometrial cancer; isolated tumor cells; low-volume metastasis; micrometastases; sentinel lymph node; ultrastaging.