Prognosis and survival of pT1N2 lung carcinoma undergoing pulmonary resection and mediastinal lymph node dissection

In the past 15 years, mediastinal lymph node dissection in conjunction with pulmonary resection was performed on 39 pT1N2 patients at Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital. The patients consisted of 4 histological cell types: 26 adenocarcinomas, 5 epidermoid carcinomas, 4 large cell carcinomas and 4 small cell carcinomas. The absolute five-year survival rate for pT1 N2 patients undergoing curative resection was 52.7% which was better than that of patients with stage II non-small cell carcinoma surgically resected during the same period. This finding suggests that pT1N2 group is a special entity among pN2 lung carcinoma, that shows better survival rate than less advanced patients with respect to pathological stage (stage II).