Prevalence and Quantity of Lymph Nodes at Mediastinal Stations in Patients with Lung Cancer: Lessons from 181 Bilateral Mediastinal Lymphadenectomies.

This study evaluated the prevalence and quantity of lymph nodes at particular stations of the mediastinum in patients with lung cancer. These data are important to radiologists, pathologists, and thoracic surgeons because they can serve as a benchmark when assessing the completeness of lymph node dissection. However, relevant data in the literature are scarce. Data regarding the number of lymph nodes derived from two randomised trials of bilateral mediastinal lymph node dissection, the BML-1 and BML-2 study, were included in this analysis. Detectable nodes at particular stations of the mediastinum and the number of nodes at these stations were analysed. The mean number of removed nodes was 28.67 (range, 4–88). Detectable lymph nodes were present at stations 2R, 4R, and 7 in 93