Clinicopathological and computed tomographic features associated with occult lymph node metastasis in patients with peripheral solid non-small cell lung cancer

•CT features of lymph nodes are of limited value in the diagnosis of OLNM.•CT morphological features of the tumor could be an auxiliary tool to predict OLNM.•Integrating clinicopathology with CT feature of tumours is helpful in predicting OLNM. To investigate the value of combining clinicopathological characteristics with computed tomographic (CT) features of tumours for predicting occult lymph node metastasis (OLNM) in peripheral solid non-small cell lung cancer (PS-NSCLC). The study included 478 NSCLC clinically N0 (cN0) patients who underwent lobectomy and systemic lymph node dissection from January 2014 to August 2019. Patients were classified into OLNM and negative lymph node metastasis (NLNM) groups. The CT features of non-metastatic and metastatic lymph nodes with a largest short-diameter > 5 mm were compared in the OLNM group. Thereafter, the clinicopathological characteristics and CT morphological features of tumours were compared between both groups. Multivariable logistic regression analysis and receiver-operating characteristic curve were developed. CT images detected 103 metastatic and 705 non-metastatic lymph nodes, and no significant differences in CT features of lymph nodes were found in all 161 OLNM patients (P > 0.05). For both groups, sex, carcinoembryonic antigen and pathological type differed significantly (all P