Multicentric Analysis of Predictors of N1 Upstaging After Resection of cStage-I NSCLC

After optimal preoperative staging, 10 to 25% of patients with clinical stage I (cStage-I) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are found to have unforeseen positive lymph nodes during resection.

Central tumors, even if they are smaller than 3cm (cT1), have a higher incidence of both intrapulmonary or hilar (N1) or ipsilateral mediastinal (N2) lymph node involvement in comparison to peripheral lesions.

In a cohort of patients that underwent identical preoperative mediastinal evaluation and postoperative pathologic tissue examination of equal quality, nodal upstaging can be used as a quality indicator of oncologic thoracic surgery. Or, it can be used as an instrument to compare different techniques, such as thoracoscopic (VATS) versus open lung resections for lung cancer.

Five papers showed a lower N1 nodal upstaging with video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) compared to open surgery. These retrospective studies did not include tumor location.

The investigators hypothesize that this creates a bias as surgeons might have chosen an open approach when the tumor was centrally located. This is in line with initial feasibility reports and guidelines that excluded patients with central lesions. This results in a higher prevalence of positive N1 nodes in patients operated with the open approach.