Does complete mediastinal lymph node dissection improve overall survival compared to mediastinal lymph node staging in stage I NSCLC?
Author(s):
- Associate Professor Gavin Wright MD FRACS PhD — Author
- Cancer Council Australia Lung Cancer Guidelines Working Party — Co-author
Guidelines commissioned by
Last modified:
3 May 2018 00:08:08
Does complete mediastinal lymph node dissection improve overall survival compared to mediastinal lymph node staging in stage I NSCLC?
Introduction
Mediastinal lymph node staging, either by pre-operative (mediastinoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound FNA) or intra-operative sampling is an integral part of surgical resection of NSCLC. Besides the prognostic value of proper staging, the current evidence base for adjuvant chemotherapy shows a survival advantage for patients receiving chemotherapy if any nodes are found to be positive. Whilst accurate lymph node staging should be standard practice, the evidence to date has been unclear as to when a complete mediastinal lymph node dissection is indicated, if at all.
Complete lymph node dissection versus lymph node staging in stage I
Despite a meta analysis demonstrating a survival benefit from mediastinal node dissection for all-comers having NSCLC resection[1], the completion of a large randomised controlled trial by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group[2], confirmed that this benefit did not extend to patients who were staged intra-operatively with frozen section proven node negative disease. Another small trial of peripheral clinical stage I NSCLC less than 2cm in diameter also failed to demonstrate a benefit of complete mediastinal lymph node dissection[3]. A systematic review and meta analysis confirmed the lack of survival benefit of complete mediastinal lymph node dissection over systematic mediastinal lymph node sampling.[4]
Evidence summary and recommendations
| Evidence summary | Level | References |
|---|---|---|
| Complete mediastinal lymph node dissection does not improve survival for patients having surgical resection for pathologically proven stage I NSCLC.
Last reviewed November 2015 |
I, II | [2], [3], [4] |
Evidence-based recommendation
|
Grade |
|---|---|
 Last reviewed November 2015 |
C |
| Practice point
|
|---|
|
For accurate staging according to AJCC TNM Pathological Staging, it is advisable to sample at least three lymph nodes from different stations. This is also required for prognostic purposes and for appropriate referral for adjuvant chemotherapy. Last reviewed November 2015 |
References
- ↑ Wright G, Manser RL, Byrnes G, Hart D, Campbell DA. Surgery for non-small cell lung cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Thorax 2006 Jul;61(7):597-603 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16449262.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 .
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sugi K, Nawata K, Fujita N, Ueda K, Tanaka T, Matsuoka T, et al. Systematic lymph node dissection for clinically diagnosed peripheral non-small-cell lung cancer less than 2 cm in diameter. World J Surg 1998 Mar;22(3):290-4; discussion 294-5 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9494422.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Huang X, Wang J, Chen Q, Jiang J. Mediastinal Lymph Node Dissection versus Mediastinal Lymph Node Sampling for Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS One 2014;9(10):e109979 Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25296033.
Appendices
