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How Many Nodes Need to be Removed to Make Esophagectomy an Adequate Cancer Operation, and Does the Number Change When a Patient has Chemoradiotherapy Before Surgery?

  • Thoracic Oncology
  • Published:
Annals of Surgical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction and Design

Node dissection during esophagectomy is an important aspect of esophageal cancer staging. Controversy remains as to how many nodes need to be resected in order to properly stage a patient and whether the removal of more nodes carries a stage-independent survival benefit. A review of the literature performed by a group of experts in the subject may help define a minimum accepted number of lymph nodes to be resected in both primary surgery and post-induction therapy scenarios.

Results and Conclusions

The existing evidence generally supports the goal of obtaining a minimum of 15 lymph nodes for pathological examination in both primary surgery and post-induction therapy scenarios.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Jonathan C. Yeung MD

  2. Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Manjit S. Bains MD, Arianna Barbetta MD, Tamar Nobel MD, Francisco Schlottmann MD & Daniela Molena MD

  3. Foregut and Thoracic Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal and Minimally Invasive Surgery, The Oregon Clinic, Portland, OR, USA

    Steven R. DeMeester MD

  4. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Swedish Cancer Institute, Seattle, WA, USA

    Brian E. Louie MD

  5. Section of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Mark B. Orringer MD & Rishindra M. Reddy MD

  6. Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Linda W. Martin MD

Authors
  1. Jonathan C. Yeung MD
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  2. Manjit S. Bains MD
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Correspondence to Daniela Molena MD.

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Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement

This study was supported, in part, by the NIH/NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA008748).

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Yeung, J.C., Bains, M.S., Barbetta, A. et al. How Many Nodes Need to be Removed to Make Esophagectomy an Adequate Cancer Operation, and Does the Number Change When a Patient has Chemoradiotherapy Before Surgery?. Ann Surg Oncol 27, 1227–1232 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-019-07870-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-019-07870-2

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