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P.B. Licht



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    MINI 19 - Surgical Topics in Localized NSCLC (ID 138)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Treatment of Localized Disease - NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI19.03 - Subcarinal Lymph Node Dissection Is Also Necessary in Upper Lobectomies for Lung Cancer (ID 596)

      16:55 - 17:00  |  Author(s): P.B. Licht

      • Abstract
      • Presentation

      Background:
      Mediastinal lymph node evaluation in Non Small-Cell Lung Cancers (NSCLC) is of paramount importance for optimum planning of treatment. Recently, it was claimed that subcarinal lymph node dissection could be spared in upper lobe NSCLC resections because of the low incidence of metastatic disease. These data, however, were single institution reports. We used complete national data to investigate patterns of unsuspected mediastinal lymph node involvement in patients operated for NSCLC.

      Methods:
      A national registry was used to identify every single patient operated for NSCLC during an 11-year period (2003-2013). Unsuspected mediastinal lymph node involvement was investigated by comparison of clinical and final pathological nodal stage, and patients with clinical mediastinal lymph node metastases were excluded. For every patient we extracted information about tumor location, histopathology, clinical and pathological TNM-stage. All preoperative imaging and staging investigations were recorded.

      Results:
      An unsuspected mediastinal lymph node metastasis was found in 426 patients (9.8%) of 3953 patients and 167 (4.4%) had unsuspected subcarinal metastases, which were significantly more frequent in patients with lower lobe or middle lobe cancers compared with upper lobe cancers 7 % (101/1440) versus 1.8% (42/2258), (p<0.01). Preoperative invasive mediastinal staging was used in 57% (n=2253) of all patients and significantly more frequent in upper lobe cancers (62% (n=1400), p<0.01), in patients who had unsuspected mediastinal lymph node metastasis (75% (n=320), p< 0.01) and in patients with subcarinal metastases (74% (n=124), p< 0.01).

      Location of the tumor All patients Patients with N2 disease Metastasis in station 7
      RUL 1254 121 28 (2.2 %)
      LUL 1004 116 14 (1.4 %)
      RLL 672 78 52 (7.7 %)
      LLL 585 62 36 (6.2 %)
      Middle lobe 183 16 13 (7.1 %)
      Bilobectomy 255 33 24 (9.4 %)
      Total 3953 426 167


      Conclusion:
      A substantial number of patients undergoing surgery for NSCLC have unsuspected subcarinal mediastinal lymph node involvement despite 74% had preoperative invasive mediastinal staging. Unsuspected subcarinal metastases were most common in lower and middle lobe cancers but were also frequent in upper lobe NSCLC. Subcarinal lymph node dissection should therefore be a routine part of surgery for NSCLC - regardless of tumor location to avoid undiagnosed subcarinal lymph node metastasis.

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