TY - JOUR T1 - Probabilities of Identifying a Micrometastasis in a Cervical Lymph Node from Laryngeal Cancer. A Stereometric Approach JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 3213 LP - 3216 VL - 33 IS - 8 AU - ALEXANDER DELIDES AU - MICHAEL MANIADAKIS AU - EUSTATHIOS STATHOPOULOS Y1 - 2013/08/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/33/8/3213.abstract N2 - 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%. ER -