Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer, with 2200 new patients in 2022 in the Netherlands. Most of them are diagnosed with a low and intermediate risk profile, meaning that the cancer has favourable characteristics. The standard treatment consists of a hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. The need for adjuvant therapy (radiotherapy or chemotherapy) is based on patient and tumour characteristics. The actual lymph node status is not assessed, while the presence of lymph node metastasis does impact the prognosis. This thesis shows the added value of sentinel lymph node mapping (removing the first lymph node on which a tumour drains). It is feasible with a low complication rate, reliable, cost-effective, and preferred by patients. In some patients sentinel lymph node mapping leads to the diagnosis of lymph node metastases, leading to better personalised adjuvant therapy.
Lara Burg (1993) obtained her Master's degree in Medicine, cum laude, at the Radboud University in 2017 after which she worked as doctor (ANIOS) and resident (AIOS) in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Besides her clinical tasks, she performed her PhD in sentinel lymph node mapping in endometrial cancer. She currently works as a fourth-year resident in the Radboud university medical center.