Abstract:
Objective This study aims to investigate the correlation between the number of resected lymph nodes (LNs) and the prognosis of patients with node-negative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods A retrospective review of 305 patients with NSCLC, who received curative resection between January 2004 and December 2009, was conducted. All patients were proved without lymph node involvement histopathologically. The prognostic impact of the number of negative LNs and the clinicopathologic factors were analyzed.
Results The overall median survival time and the 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival rates were 60.0 months, 76.1%, 59.3%, and 47.1%, respectively. Survival analysis confirmed that the number of negative LNs, T staging and the stations of the mediastinal lymph nodes dissected were showed to be independent prognostic factors. Patients with a high number of negative LNs had better overall survival than patients with a low number of negative LNs (P <0.05). The patients with dissected LNs counts of more than 11 for cases with pTl~2 tumor (P <0.05) and more than 16 for cases with pT3 tumor (P <0.05) had better long-term survival outcomes. The post-operative complication rate was 12.1%, which was not significantly correlated with the number of dissected lymph nodes (P>0.05).
Conclusion The number of negative lymph nodes is an independent prognostic predicting factor for node-negative NSCLC. Sufficient dissection of LNs is recommended to improve the survival of the patients with node-negative NSCLC.
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