The number of lymph nodes examined is associated with survival outcomes and nodal upstaging in patients with stage I small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE(S): Lymph node status is vital for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). We sought to evaluate the association between the number of lymph nodes examined (NLNE) and prognosis and nodal upstaging in stage I SCLC patients.

METHODS

We queried the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database and our department for surgically treated patients with pathologic stage I SCLC to evaluate the correlation between NLNE and overall survival (OS). We further investigated the association between the NLNE and nodal upstaging in clinical stage I SCLC.

RESULTS

A total of 878 patients with pathologic stage I SCLC were enrolled from the SEER database. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that removing more than 6 lymph nodes was associated with significantly improved OS. We validated the prognostic impact from examining more than 6 nodes in pathologic stage I SCLC patients from our department. Logistic regression analysis found that removing more than 6 nodes increased the odds of nodal upstaging for clinical stage I SCLC.

CONCLUSIONS

Adequate nodal examination leads to survival benefits and accurate nodal staging. Our analysis indicated that examining more than 6 lymph nodes could confer better OS and predict nodal upstaging for stage I SCLC patients.