Extended vs. No Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection During Radical Prostatectomy. DISSECTION 2.0.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men globally and a major cause of cancer deaths in Europe. For men with localized prostate cancer (PCa) and a life expectancy of over 10 years, radical prostatectomy (RP) is the standard treatment. It improves survival compared to conservative management. However, there is debate about de benefit of pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND), the removal of lymph nodes in the pelvis, during RP. While PLND can be omitted in low risk PCa patients, extended PLND (ePLND) is recommended in PCa patients at high-risk for recurrence in order to improve nodal staging The DISSECTION 2.0 study aims to investigate whether extended PLND (ePLND) provides additional benefits for men with high-risk PCa. The hypothesis is that ePLND might help by removing undetectable cancer cells (micrometastases) in the lymph nodes or by better staging the disease for treatment planning. While imaging techniques like PSMA-PET are good at detecting cancer spread, they still miss approximately 60% of cancer-bearing lymph nodes, leaving room for ePLND to potentially improve outcomes. ePLND involves removing more lymph nodes than standard PLND, leading to better detection of cancer spread. However, it also increases surgery time and complications slightly, though serious complications are rare.