Does recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph node metastasis really affect the prognosis in node-positive patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the middle thoracic esophagus?

BMC Surgery

Research Article

Wei-Ming Mao¹  Qi-Xun Chen¹  Xing-Ming Zhou¹  Jie Wu¹  Mark J Krasna² 

[1] Department of Thoarcic Surgery, Zhejinang Cancer Hospital, 38 Guangji Road, 310022, Hangzhou, China;Meridian Cancer Care, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, New Jersey, USA;

关键词: Esophageal cancer;    Lymph node metastasis;    Recurrent laryngeal nerve;    Squamous cell carcinoma;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2482-14-43

 received in 2013-07-31, accepted in 2014-07-09,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRecurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) lymph node metastasis used to be shown a predictor for poor prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of RLN node metastasis and the number of metastatic lymph nodes in node-positive patients with squamous cell carcinoma of middle thoracic esophagus.MethodsA cohort of 235 patients who underwent curative surgery for squamous cell carcinoma of middle thoracic esophagus was investigated. The prognostic impact was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsLymph node metastasis was found in 133 patients. Among them, 81 had metastatic RLN nodes, and 52 had at least one positive node but no RLN nodal involvement. The most significant difference in survival was detected between patients with metastatic lymph nodes below and above a cutoff value of six (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that the number of metastatic lymph nodes was a significant factor associated with overall survival (P < 0.001), but RLN lymph node metastasis was not (P = 0.865).ConclusionsRLN Lymph node metastasis is not, but the number of metastatic nodes is a prognostic predictor in node-positive patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the middle thoracic esophagus.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Wu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014