Nephroblastoma: does the decrease in tumor volume under preoperative chemotherapy predict the lymph nodes status at surgery?

Background Partial nephrectomy (NSS) for unilateral nephroblastoma may be beneficial, although in case of regional lymph node (LN) involvement, radiotherapy counteracts the functional benefit of NSS. The aim is to verify whether decrease of tumor volume under preoperative chemotherapy implies clearance of regional LN. Procedure SIOP 9301 (1993–2001) collected 1,450 localized nephroblastoma patients of whom 1,360 (93%) had sufficiently available data and were retrospectively reviewed. Results Histologic subtypes were classically distributed. Patients were divided in those with tumor positive LN (76, 5.5%) and those with tumor negative LN (1,284, 94.5%) at surgery. In the LN(+) group, the tum…