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Number of Negative Lymph Nodes is Associated with Survival in Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Three-Field Lymphadenectomy

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

Abstract

Background

The number of negative lymph nodes (NLNs) can be used for predicting clinical outcomes for patients with esophageal carcinoma as it is believed to reflect the extent of lymphadenectomy. However, when patients are treated with the same surgical procedure, its prognostic value is not clear.

Methods

We reviewed the records of 332 patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who underwent three-field lymphadenectomy (3FLND) and had at least 15 lymph nodes removed. We used Kaplan–Meier estimates to compute overall survival (OS), the log-rank tests to assess the equality of survival rates, and Cox regression analyses to evaluate the association between survival and NLN count after adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

At a median follow-up interval of 36 months, the median OS was 47 months and the 5-year survival rate was 47.0 %. NLN count was independently associated with OS, and higher numbers of NLNs were linked to better OS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.970; 95 % confidence interval [CI] 0.955–0.986); the effect did not change after we stratified patients into node-negative (HR 0.966; 95 % CI 0.933–1.000) and node-positive (HR 0.973; 95 % CI 0.955–0.991) groups.

Conclusion

The NLN count is an important independent prognostic factor for patients with thoracic ESCC treated with 3FLND.

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank the Department of Scientific Publication at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for editorial review of this paper.

Conflicts of interest

Zhengfei Zhu, Haiquan Chen, Weiwei Yu, Xiaolong Fu, Jiaqing Xiang, Hecheng Li, Yawei Zhang, Menghong Sun, Qiao Wei, Weixin Zhao, and Kuaile Zhao declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Correspondence to Haiquan Chen MD or Kuaile Zhao MD.

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Zhu, Z., Chen, H., Yu, W. et al. Number of Negative Lymph Nodes is Associated with Survival in Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Three-Field Lymphadenectomy. Ann Surg Oncol 21, 2857–2863 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-014-3665-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-014-3665-y

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