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Updated: Apr 23, 2026
Thoracoscopic Extended Right Middle Plus Lower Sleeve Lobectomy for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
Published on: February 27, 2026
Systematic mediastinal lymphadenectomy or mediastinal lymph node sampling in patients with pathological stage I
Siyuan Dong1, Jiang Du, Wenya Li
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, dsycmu@163.com.
Background:
To evaluate the evidence comparing systematic mediastinal lymphadenectomy (SML) and mediastinal lymph node sampling (MLS) in the treatment of pathological stage I NSCLC using meta-analytical techniques.
Methods:
A literature search was undertaken until January 2014 to identify the comparative studies evaluating 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates. The pooled odds ratios (OR) and the 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) were calculated with either the fixed or random effect models.
Results:
One RCT study and four retrospective studies were included in our meta-analysis. These studies included a total of 711 patients: 317 treated with SML, and 394 treated with MLS. The SML and the MLS did not demonstrate a significant difference in the 1-year survival rate. There were significant statistical differences between the 3-year (P = 0.03) and 5-year survival rates (P = 0.004), which favored SML.
Conclusions:
This meta-analysis suggests that in pathological stage I NSCLC, the MLS can get the similar outcome to the SML in terms of 1-year survival rate. However, the SML is superior to MLS in terms of 3- and 5-year survival rates.
