Quality of life after extended lymph node dissection for colon cancer

Abstract

Aim: to evaluate the effect of the lymphadenectomy (LD) level on the quality of life (QoL) in patients who underwent laparoscopic colon resection for colon cancer.Patients and methods: the study included 86 patients who underwent surgery for colon cancer from January 2018 to August 2020. The patients were randomized in 2 groups: the main group — with D3 lymphadenectomy — 41 patients and the control group — with D2 — 45 patients. Two validated QoL questionnaires (QLQ-C30 v. 3.0, QLQ-CR29 v. 2.1) of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) were applied by the patients on the day before the surgery and on the 30th day after the surgery and were used for the further analysis.Results: there were no significant differences between the groups in gender, age, weight, height, BMI, assessment of functional and physical status according to the ASA and ECOG scales, incidence of comorbidities, tumor site, type and volume surgical of procedures. Regardless of the level of lymphadenectomy, the significant improvement in QoL after surgery was obtained (pQoLD3 = 0.005, pQoLD2 = 0.023) in both groups. The significant increase in the incidence of diarrhea by 2.65 times was detected after laparoscopic right hemicolectomies with extended lymphadenectomy (p = 0.042). Also, there was a significant 2.45 fold increase in the risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) after D3 lymphadenectomy in the patients who underwent laparoscopic resections of the left colon in the early postoperative period (p = 0.031).Conclusion: the analysis of physical, social functioning and symptomatic scales has established that in patients who underwent colon resection for cancer of the left colon erectile dysfunction occurred to a greater extent after D3 LD, whereas diarrhea was more likely to develop after resection of the right colon with D3 LD than with D2 LD.