If I Didn’t Have My Nodes Removed, Should I Go Back To The Operating Room?

If your cancer is an endometrioid cancer that is grade 1 or 2, is less than halfway through the muscle of the uterus, and does not show involvement of vascular spaces in the uterus, then your risk of lymph node involvement is very low and you probably will not need to go back to the operating room to have lymph nodes removed, but ultimately it will be up to your surgeon and you to make this decision.

If you have a high grade or deeply invasive cancer, then your risk of having lymph node involvement is high enough to warrant intervention. However, your doctor may recommend radiation to the lymph node areas without a return to the operating room if your risk is high enough.

Your doctor may discuss going back to the operating room to remove lymph nodes with you if he or she believes you might be able to avoid radiation if your lymph nodes are negative, or if there is evidence of enlarged lymph nodes on CT scan.

I did have my pelvic lymph nodes removed at the time of my hysterectomy but not the para aortic nodes. It was something I made sure to talk about with my surgeon and also the oncologists handling my follow-up treatments. I was concerned how we would know if they were involved or not.