The impact of hilar lymphadenopathy positivity on prognosis in surgically operated lung cancer patients

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the positivity of the 10th lymph node, which was pathologically detected, on survival in cases that underwent curative surgery. Materials and Methods: In this study, a total of 976 patients who underwent curative resection due to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) between February 2007 and August 2024 at the thoracic surgery clinic were examined. Patients with 10th lymph node positivity were compared with those showing positivity in other N1 lymph nodes, N2 lymph nodes, larger tumor sizes, histological types of cancer cells, types of surgery performed, and recurrence rates, in terms of their effect on survival. Results: According to our results, in patients who underwent surgery for early-stage and small tumor size cancers, statistically significant differences in average survival rates were observed regardless of the histological diagnosis (p=0.001, p=0.038). While there were differences in survival between hilar lymph node positivity and other single-station N1 positivity, these differences were not statistically significant. It was found that the presence of only single-station positivity in NSCLC is advantageous, and after resection with mediastinal lymph node dissection, it could increase the average survival rate compared to multiple positive stations. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the positivity of the 10th lymph node does not show a statistically significant survival difference when compared to other single-station N1 positivity, but it has better survival rates compared to multiple N1 and N2 positivity. Keywords: Lung cancer, Hilar lymphadenopathy positivity, Non-small cell lung cancer, Prognosis, Thoracic surgery