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

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. 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.