[The prognostic significance of lymph node metastasis in surgical resection of esophageal cancer].

The metastatic rate and degree of lymph node (LN) were evaluated and the relation between prognostic significance and LN metastasis (M) was analysed through a retrospective study of 474 patients undergoing resections of non-irradiated esophageal carcinoma. In patients with LNM, the LNM rate was 44.5%. A total of 5382 LNs were resected and examined pathologically. 690 of them were metastatic ones with a LNM degree of 12.8%. The 5-year survival rate of this series was 30.6% (145/474), and was 12.8% (27/211) in patients with LNM and 44.9% (118/263) in those without LNM. We concluded that surgery remains the first choice of treatment for carcinoma of esophagus, and that meticulous LN dissection is an important part of surgical oncology. This is especially true when the cancer process is reasonably localized. However, in more advanced cases of this disease, surgery alone is of limited value in eradicating all cancer compromized tissue, and therefore the routine practice of extensive LN dissection in such cases may not be rewarding.