Video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy is associated with better survival than mediastinoscopy in patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to analyze the accuracy of video-assisted mediastinoscopic lymphadenectomy (VAMLA) as a tool for preoperative staging and the impact of the technique on survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergoing pulmonary resection. Methods: Between May 2006 and December 2010, 433 patients underwent pulmonary resection for NSCLC, 89 (21%) had VAMLA before resection and 344 (79%) had standard mediastinoscopy. The patients who had negative VAMLA/mediastinoscopy results underwent anatomic pulmonary resection and systematic lymph node dissection. Results: The median and mean numbers of resected lymph node stations were 5 and 4.9 in the VAMLA group and 4 and 4.2 in the mediastinoscopy group (P =.9). The mean number of lymph nodes per biopsy specimen using standard mediastinoscopy was 10.1, whereas it was 30.4 using VAMLA (P