Lymphatic invasion is a cause of local recurrence after wedge resection of primary lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE

After securing a sufficient surgical margin at wedge resection and finding no pathologic evidence of residual tumor at the surgical margin, a considerable number of patients develop local recurrence. We investigated the correlation between sub-pleural lymphatic flow and local recurrence.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 144 non-small cell lung cancer patients who underwent wedge resection between January 2006 and December 2014 at our institution.

RESULTS

Postoperative recurrence was observed in 36 patients (25%). Of these, local recurrence was observed in 29 patients (80.5%). The proportion of all recurrence and local recurrence were significantly higher among patients with lymphatic vessel invasion (LVI) (p < 0.0001). Recurrence-free survival rate was significantly lower in patients with LVI (24.8%) than in patients without LVI (80.2%, p < 0.0001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated LVI (odds ratio = 6.420, p = 0.0009) as a significant predictor of local recurrence.

CONCLUSIONS

Intratumoral lymphatic invasion represents a major cause of local recurrence. Although we should aim for radical surgery whenever possible, when limited surgery is the only option, postoperative adjuvant treatment may need to be considered for patients showing lymphatic invasion even at an early stage.