Nodal skip metastasis in thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a cohort study

BMC Surgery

Table 3 Main findings of recent literature: all patients had thoracic esophageal cancer and were treated with esophagectomy without neoadjuvant therapy

First author and year	Country	Histotype	Node dissection	N pts. with LNM	NSM rate	Predictors of NSM	Effect of NSM on OS	Effect of NSM on DFS
Zhu, 2013 ^a[13]	China	ESCC	3-field	207	28%	Tumor location (middle esophagus)	Similar prognosis	Not evaluated
Li, 2013 ^b [14]	China	Superficial ESCC	2-field/3-field	49	40.8%	Not evaluated	Not evaluated	Not evaluated
Wu, 2012 ^{b c} [15]	China	Middle thoracic ESCC	2-field/3-field	33	24.2% to 69.7% ^d	Not evaluated	Similar prognosis	Not evaluated
Xu, 2011 ^a[16]	China	ESCC	Not reported	38	76.3%	Not evaluated	Similar prognosis	Not evaluated
Prenzel, 2010 ^c [17]	Germany	EAC/ESCC	2-field	128	20.3%	Tumor location (middle/upper esophagus) and T1 stage	Better prognosis	Not evaluated
Chen, 2009 ^a [18]	China	ESCC	3-field	1081	73.6%	Tumor location (middle/lower esophagus)	Not evaluated	Not evaluated

LNM lymph node metastasis, NSM nodal skip metastasis, OS overall survival, DFS disease free survival, ESCC esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, EAC esophageal adenocarcinoma. ^aNSM defined as metastatic involvement of distant LNs with peritumoral LNs free of tumor infiltration. ^bNSM defined as cervical and/or abdominal involvement but no mediastinal metastasis. ^cNSM defined as metastatic infiltration of N2 through N4 lymph nodes but not of N1 nodes according to the Japanese staging system of the Japanese Society for Esophageal Disease. ^dAccording to the different definitions evaluated in the study

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