TY - JOUR T1 - The Prognostic Value of the Number of Harvested Negative Lymph Nodes in Patients Treated by Esophagectomy With or Without Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 2833 LP - 2840 DO - 10.21873/anticanres.14257 VL - 40 IS - 5 AU - MAXIMILIAN BRUNNER AU - SUSANNE MERKEL AU - CHRISTIAN KRAUTZ AU - STEPHAN KERSTING AU - ROBERT GRÜTZMANN AU - GEORG F. WEBER Y1 - 2020/05/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/40/5/2833.abstract N2 - Background/Aim: The prognostic value of the number of harvested negative lymph nodes (NLNs) in patients with node-negative esophageal carcinoma treated by esophagectomy with or without neoadjuvant chemoradiation is unclear. Patients and Methods: A total of 136 patients who underwent oncological esophagectomy with two-field lymphadenectomy from 1995 to 2014 were analyzed regarding the prognostic impact of NLNs. 86 patients received primary surgery (group 1) and 50 patients had preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery (group 2). Results: The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 61.1%. Median lymph node harvest was significantly higher in group 1 (39 vs. 34 in group 2, p=0.007). In group 1, patients with a higher number of negative lymph nodes (>40) had a better OS [57.6% vs. 78.9%, HR=0.5 (0.3-0.9), p=0.026], whereas there was no significant difference in group 2 using the same cutoff (47.6% vs. 66.7%, p=0.476). Conclusion: The number of NLNs is an independent prognostic factor for patients with esophageal carcinoma treated by primary esophagectomy, but not in patients after neoadjuvant chemoradiation. ER -