Can a Thoracic Surgeon Identify Lymph Node Metastases during Surgery Based on Their Size?: Analysis of 844 Metastatic and 10,462 Nonmetastatic Lymph Nodes

The small lymph nodes in the hilar or mediastinal stations frequently had metastases of carcinoma even though largest and second largest lymph nodes were negative for metastases, especially in adenocarcinoma cases. Surgical oncologists should, therefore, perform systemic lymph node dissection, and not sampling, during a pulmonary resection of lung cancer.