Abstract
Aim
To evaluate the involvement of subcarinal lymph node dissection (SLND) in the surgical treatment of esophageal cancer, as well as its impact on surgical outcomes following esophagectomy.
Background & Methods
Data on patients that underwent esophagectomy from 01/03/2014 to 01/03/2019 were prospectively collected and retrospectively reviewed. Based on the medical records, the following parameters were collected and analyzed: patient demographics, histopathological parameters, surgical- oncological outcomes. All patients were staged according to the AJCC 8th edition.
Results
A total of 79 patients underwent Ivor Lewis or McKeown esophagectomy for either squamous cell carcinoma (n= 7 patients) or adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction (n= 72 patients). In 26 cases, esophagectomy was performed without SLND, while 53 cases underwent SLND. Among the 53 patients, 50 (94.3%) were men, and 3 (5.7 %) were women. Mean age was 61.4 years, (range 34-78). Mean nodal harvest was 34.7 lymph nodes per patient. Lymph node invasion was noted in 33 patients (62.2%), with a mean of 9 positive lymph nodes per patient. Subcarinal lymph nodes were involved in 5 out of 53 patients (9.4%). The ratio of positive subcarinal lymph nodes to resected ones was 1/2 (50%), 3/3 (100%), 1/2 (50%), 1/2 (50%) and 1/1 (100%) for each patient. Final histopathological report showed adenocarcinoma of moderate or poor differentiation (G2 2/5, G3 3/5) in all five patients (100%). Four out of 5 patients had not received neoadjuvant treatment and their pathological staging was T3N3M0. One patient had received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and his final staging was ypT3N2M0. Noteworthy, the seven patients diagnosed with squamous carcinoma, were subjected to SLND and were 100% negative for invasion histologically.
Conclusion
Subcarinal lymph nodes were infiltrated in 9.4% of patients operated for esophageal cancer. In the squamous cell cancer group, the relative infiltration rate was notably 0%. It seems that omission of subcarinal lymph node dissection during transthoracic esophagectomy cannot be justified.
Feasibility and strategy of common hepatic artery lymph node dissection in thoracolaparoscopic esophagectomy for thoracic esophageal squamous cell cancer