Characteristics of clinical N0 metastatic non-small cell lung cancer

Metastatic NSCLC patients with clinical N0 had a favorable prognosis and a lower ratio of adrenal gland metastasis than those with clinical N1-3. Our results suggest that a certain type of adrenal metastasis may result from direct lymphatic spread from a primary lung tumor. About one sixth of metastatic NSCLC cases are clinical N0. Therefore, clinical evaluations for detecting metastasis are important even in clinical N0 patients.