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Updated: Aug 16, 2026
Thoracoscopic Extended Right Middle Plus Lower Sleeve Lobectomy for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
Published on: February 27, 2026
Limited mediastinal lymph node dissection for non-small cell lung cancer according to intraoperative histologic
Tatsuya Yoshimasu1, Shinichiro Miyoshi, Shoji Oura
1Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Wakayama Medical University, Japan. yositatu@mail.wakayama-med.ac.jp
Background:
Although radioisotopic procedures are commonly used to detect sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer surgery, these procedures are often problematic and not necessarily suitable for lung cancer surgery.
Methods:
Our previous study revealed that the mediastinal sentinel lymph node, defined as the regional mediastinal lymph node, consisted of nodes 2, 3, or 4 in right upper lobe cancers; 3, 7, or 8 in right lower lobe cancers; 4, 5, or 7 in left upper lobe cancers; and 4, 7, or 8 in left lower lobe cancers. On the basis of these findings, we pathologically investigated one representative lymph node at each of the 3 levels dissected during surgical intervention in 69 patients with non-small cell lung cancer from September 1993 through December 2002. Fifty-eight patients with lung cancer underwent lobectomies with limited mediastinal lymph node dissection according to this strategy.
Results:
Mediastinal lymph node recurrence was observed in only one patient during 41 +/- 25 months (maximum, 98 months) of follow-up. The cancer-specific 5-year survivals were 96.6% in patients with pathologic stage IA disease (n = 31) and 67.4% in patients with stage IB disease (n = 16).
Conclusion:
These results suggested that limited mediastinal lymph node dissection is applicable to patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose regional mediastinal lymph nodes are not metastatic.
