PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - ALEXANDER DELIDES
AU  - MICHAEL MANIADAKIS
AU  - EUSTATHIOS STATHOPOULOS
TI  - Probabilities of Identifying a Micrometastasis in a Cervical Lymph Node from Laryngeal Cancer. A Stereometric Approach
DP  - 2013 Aug 01
TA  - Anticancer Research
PG  - 3213--3216
VI  - 33
IP  - 8
4099  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/33/8/3213.short
4100  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/33/8/3213.full
SO  - Anticancer Res2013 Aug 01; 33
AB  - Background: Lymph node micrometastases are important for prognosis and treatment. Their identification in neck dissection specimens with large numbers of nodes is a matter of chance unless serial sectioning or step sectioning at intervals of 200 μm is used, a method which is impractical. Materials and Methods: For a case of squamous cell laryngeal carcinoma where a micrometastasis was found in one of the lymph nodes, we performed a stereometric analysis of the probability of identifying the lesion. Results: One section at a depth of 100 μm from the surface of each bisected lymph node revealed a micrometastasis, with a range of conditional probability of 75-98%. Conclusion: Serial sectioning of all excised nodes is unrealistic for routine practice. Knowing the probability of actually identifying a micrometastasis could be important additional information for the clinician and the management of the patient. By performing three sections, the probability of missing a micrometastasis within a normally appearing node would be 2-25%.