The effect of lymph node ratio on survival in non-small-cell lung cancer
Celal Bugra Sezen1, Cem Emrah Kalafat1, Mustafa Vedat Doğru1
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Science of Health University, Yedikule Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Background:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of prognostic factors and lymph node ratio (LNR) on survival in patients with resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods:
Data from 421 patients with NSCLC who underwent complete resection between 2009 and 2015 were evaluated retrospectively. LNR was defined as the ratio of positive lymph nodes to the total number of lymph nodes removed. Associations between overall survival (OS) and LNR, node (N) status, and histopathologic status were evaluated.
Results:
The 5-year survival rate was 42.5% among all patients and 26.6% for patients aged 65 years or older. In the multivariate analysis, age ≥65 years, advanced-stage disease, non-squamous cell carcinomas, pN status, and having multiple-station pN2 and multiple-station pN1 disease were found to be poor prognostic factors (p < 0.05). There was no statistical difference in survival between patients with LNR (hazard ratio: 1.04, p = 0.45).
Conclusion:
The results of our study indicate that pN stage, histopathologic type, pT stage, and geriatric age were the most important poor prognostic factors associated with survival after NSCLC resection. Although LNR is a factor associated with survival in gastrointestinal cancers, it did not impact survival in our study.
