Enhancing Patient Selection in Stage IIIA-IIIB NSCLC: Invasive Lymph Node Restaging after Neoadjuvant Therapy

Restaging of mediastinal lymph nodes plays a crucial role in the multimodal treatment of stage IIIA Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). This study aimed to assess the impact of restaging using endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS), endoesophageal ultrasound (EUS), and transcervical extended mediastinal lymphadenectomy (TEMLA) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (CHT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) on the 5-year overall survival (OS) of patients with NSCLC diagnosed with clinical stage IIIA-IIIB and metastatic ipsilateral mediastinal nodes (N2) who underwent radical pulmonary resections. Patients diagnosed with stage IIIA-IIIB NSCLC and N2 mediastinal nodes were included in this study. Restaging of mediastinal lymph nodes was performed using EBUS, EUS, and TEMLA. The patients were divided into two groups based on the restaging method: the TEMLA restaging group and the chest CT scan-only group. The primary outcome measure was the 5-year OS rate, and the secondary outcome measures included median OS and survival percentages. Statistical analysis, including the log-rank test, was conducted to assess the differences between the two groups. The TEMLA restaging group demonstrated significantly better overall survival compared to the chest CT scan-only group (log-rank test, p = 0.02). This was evident through a four-fold increase in median OS (59 vs. 14 months) and a higher 5-year OS rate of 55.9% (95% CI: 40.6-71.1) compared to 25.0% (95% CI: 13.7-36.3) in the chest CT scan-only group (p = 0.003). Invasive restaging of mediastinal lymph nodes improves the selection of patients with stage IIIA-IIIB (N2) NSCLC after neoadjuvant therapy. The use of EBUS, EUS, and TEMLA provides valuable information for identifying patients who may benefit from surgery by identifying N2 to N0-1 downstaging. These findings emphasize the importance of incorporating restaging procedures into the treatment decision-making process for NSCLC patients with mediastinal lymph node involvement.