The incidence and distribution of mediastinal lymph node metastasis and its impact on survival in patients with non-small-cell lung cancers 3 cm or less: data from 2292 cases

Abstract

Different primary NSCLC lobe locations have a different propensity to be sites of MLNM for those tumours that are 3 cm or less. For tumours no larger than 1 cm, a lower zone mediastinal lymph node dissection might be unnecessary for upper lobe tumours and an upper zone mediastinal lymph node dissection might be unnecessary for lower lobe tumours.