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Pelvic lymph nodes and pathways of disease spread in male pelvic malignancies

  • Special Section: Male Pelvis
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Accurate nodal staging for male urogenital malignancies has important implications for therapy and prognosis. Male pelvic malignancies, including prostatic, penile, testicular, and bladder cancer, typically metastasize to regional lymph nodes first which is reported by the N-stage. Spread beyond these groups to non-regional nodes is regarded as M-stage disease.

Methods

In this review, we discuss the typical patterns of male pelvic lymphatic drainage and the tumor-specific regional nodal chains.

Results

The impact of tumor-specific imaging features and the implications of previous treatments on staging are discussed.

Conclusions

While anatomic imaging, including CT and MRI, is the most widely employed imaging modality at present, newer functional imaging techniques have demonstrated promise in the accurate identification and characterization of nodal metastases.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ms. Susanne Loomis of the Radiology Education and Media Services Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA for her assistance in producing the featured illustrations. Aileen O’Shea would like to acknowledge the contribution of the MGH-MacErlaine Research Scholarship from the Faculty of Radiologists, RCSI, Ireland and Massachusetts General Hospital.

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  1. Division of Abdominal Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Aileen O’Shea, Aoife Kilcoyne & Mukesh G. Harisinghani

  2. Division of Cardiovascular Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Sandeep S. Hedgire

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  1. Aileen O’Shea
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O’Shea, A., Kilcoyne, A., Hedgire, S.S. et al. Pelvic lymph nodes and pathways of disease spread in male pelvic malignancies. Abdom Radiol 45, 2198–2212 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-019-02285-9

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