Appropriate lymphadenectomy significantly reduced recurrence after segmentectomy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND

Segmentectomy has been widely used for small-sized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The objective of this study is to determine the impact of number of harvested lymph nodes (LNs) on survival for patients undergoing segmentectomy.

METHODS

The clinicopathologic data of patients undergoing segmentectomy for NSCLC from July 2011 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 259 patients with NSCLC were eligible for analysis. Patients with harvested LN ≥6 had higher frequency of nodal metastasis in pathologic examination (9.4% 1.5%, P=0.005). The 3-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with harvested LN ≥6 (90.2%) was significantly higher than that of patients with harvested LN <6 (73.7%, log-rank P=0.038). Multivariable Cox analysis identified harvested LN ≥6 as an independent predictor for improved RFS [hazard ratio (HR) =0.35; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.14-0.90; P=0.029]. There was no significant difference in RFS between patients with harvested LN station ≥3 and <3 (log-rank P=0.34).

CONCLUSIONS

The number of harvest LN ≥6 was independently associated with improved RFS for NSCLC patients undergoing segmentectomy, supporting the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines of appropriate LN sampling.