Analysis of Lymph Node Metastases of 1,526 Cases with Thoracic Esophageal and Cardiac Carcinomas: A Random Sampling Report froni the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from 1996 to 2004

OBJECTIVE To summarize the regular pattern and state oflymph node metastasis of patients with esophageal and cardiaccarcinomas,so as to analyze factors influencing lymph nodemetastasis.METHODS Clinical data collected from 1,526 thoracicesophageal and cardiac carcinoma patients who were admitted inthe Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University during a periodfrom January 1996 to December 2004,were randomly selectedand an Access Database of the patient's information was set up.Eight clinico-pathologic factors,including the patient's age,tumorlocation and size,pathological classification,the depth of tumorinvasion,vascular tumor embolus (VTE),the state of surroundingorgan encroachment and the status of tumor residues,wereidentified.A correlation between these factors and metastases wasstatistically analyzed using SPSS13.0 software.RESULTS Lymph node metastatic sites from esophagealcarcinomas included the thoracic and abdominal cavity.Lymphnode metastasis from the superior esophageal carcinomasmainly occurred in the neck and thoracic cavity.There was atwo-way lymph node metastasis in the patients with the middleesophageal carcinoma.The inferior esophageal carcinomas mainlymetastasized to the paraesophageal,paragastric cardia,and leftgastric artery lymph nodes.The rate and degree of the metastasisfrom the inferior esophageal carcinomas were significantly highercompared to those of the superior and the middle esophagealcarcinomas (P<0.0125).The degree of abdominal lymph node metastasis fromcarcinomas of the gastric cardia was significantly higher comparedwith that of esophageal carcinomas.In the group with carcinomaof the gastric cardia,the rate and degree of the lymph nodemetastases in the paragastric cardia and left gastric artery weresignificantly higher compared to the group with esophagealcarcinoma (P<0.05).Paraesophageal lymph node metastasis fromcarcinomas of the gastric cardia in the thoracic cavity frequentlyoccurred,too,and the degree of the metastasis was similar to thatof esophageal carcinoma.There was no significant difference inthe rate and degree of the paraesophageal lymph-node metastasisbetween the group with carcinoma of the gastric cardia comparedto those with esophageal carcinoma (P>0.05).Multifactoriallogistic regression analysis showed that the tumor size,depth oftumor encroachment,VTE,and tumor residues could all bringabout obvious impact on lymph-node metastases (P<0.05).CONCLUSION Lymph node metastasis from superioresophageal carcinomas mainly occurs in the neck and thoraciccavity.The middle esophageal carcinomas presented a two-waylymph-node metastasis (both the upwards and the downwards),and the lymph node metastasis from inferior esophagealcarcinomas mainly occurred in the thoracic and abdominal cavities.The metastases of carcinoma of the gastriccardia were most commonly found in the abdominalcavity,with frequent paraesophageal lymph-nodemetastasis.The sufficient attention should be paidto neck lymph node clearance in cases of esophagealcarcinoma.What is of the greatest concern is theclearance of the left gastric artery lymph nodes,andalso in cases of gastric cardia carcinoma,clearance,the paraesophageal lymph nodes.With an increasein the tumor size and depth of tumor encroachment,and occurrence of VTE and tumor residual cells,therisk of lymph node metastasis is significantly raised (P<0.05).