Rationale for a Minimum Number of Lymph Nodes Removed with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Resection: Correlating the Number of Nodes Removed with Survival in 98,970 Patients

Background The benefit of thoracic lymphadenectomy in the treatment of resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continues to be debated. We hypothesized that the number of lymph nodes (LNs) removed for patients with pathologic node-negative NSCLC would correlate with survival. Methods The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) was queried for resected, node-negative, NSCLC patients treated between 2004 and 2014. Patients were grouped according to the number of LNs removed (1–4, 5–8, 9–12, 13–16, and ≥17). Patients with