Prognostic Significance of Metastasis to the Highest Mediastinal Lymph Node in Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer

Highest mediastinal lymph node involvement is prognostic of highly advanced N2 disease resulting in poor outcome. The results also suggest that patients with no involvement of the HM lymph node can experience acceptable postoperative outcomes even if they have multilevel N2 status, positive cN status, or T2-3 tumor status.