The impact of immunohistochemical detection of positive lymph nodes in early stage XXXX .

@entity1 @entity1149 @entity2
BACKGROUND: Detection of micrometastatic disease is an interesting area in @entity1149 ( @entity1149 ). We conducted a study to determine whether the detection of mediastinal lymph node spread by immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis offers some prognosis with respect to @entity1 ' disease-free survival or not. METHODS: Between 1997 and 2003, twenty-one early stage @entity2 @entity1 underwent complete resection with mediastinoscopy and systemic nodal dissection. Four hundred and twenty-six paraffin-embedded lymph node sections from 21 @entity1 were analyzed. Epithelial specific-antigen Ab-9 and Keratin-Pan Ab-1 were used as IHC marker. RESULTS: Based on nodal spread four of the 21 @entity1 (19.04%) were up-staged after IHC analysis. Two @entity1 with stage IB (T2N0) up-staged to stage IIIA (T2N2); two @entity1 staged as IIB (T2N1) up-staged to IIIA (T2N2). Statistical analysis showed that the lymphatic dissemination detected with IHC analysis was associated with reduced disease-free survival (DFS) (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides some indication that @entity1 with lymphatic micrometastasis have a reduced DFS. Before creating a new TNM staging system, more information is needed to understand the prognostic impact of micrometastatic dissemination.
