How Many Nodes Need to be Removed to Make Esophagectomy an Adequate Cancer Operation, and Does the Number Change When a Patient has Chemoradiotherapy Before Surgery?

Abstract

Introduction and design: Node dissection during esophagectomy is an important aspect of esophageal cancer staging. Controversy remains as to how many nodes need to be resected in order to properly stage a patient and whether the removal of more nodes carries a stage-independent survival benefit. A review of the literature performed by a group of experts in the subject may help define a minimum accepted number of lymph nodes to be resected in both primary surgery and post-induction therapy scenarios.

Results and conclusions: The existing evidence generally supports the goal of obtaining a minimum of 15 lymph nodes for pathological examination in both primary surgery and post-induction therapy scenarios.