Benefit of preventive cervical lymph node dissection for cancer in the middle thoracic esophagus

We investigate the benefit of preventive cervical lymph node dissection for the carcinoma in the middle esophagus. The surgical results of 158 patients with carcinoma in the middle of esophagus who underwent 3-field dissection (3F) (90 cases) and 2-field dissection (2F) (68 cases) in our department showed that 5-year survival rate of patients with 3-field dissection (53 %) was superior to that (38%) in 2F group. In 3F group, 5-year survival rate of the patients with cervical lymph node metastasis (16.7%) is significanly lower than that of patients without cervical node metastasis (47.5%). We compared the survival rate between 3 goups: Group A, 8 cases with cervical lymph node metastasis detected preoperatively and underwent 3F; Group B, 11 cases were not detected cervical lymph node metastasis before operation and received 3F; Group C, I I cases underwent 2F with no detected cervical node and detected metastasis in cervical nodes. The 5-year survival rate of patients in Group A, Group B, and Group C were 13%, 30% and 9% respectively and there was a significant difference between Group A and B. Our results suggested the benefit of preventive cervical lymph node dissection for patients with carcinoma in the middle thoracic esophagus.