Lymph node harvest in colon and rectal cancer: Current considerations

Table 2 Survival in stage II colorectal cancer with increasing lymph nodes

Authors	Study/country	Tumor location	No. of patients	LN cut-off parameters	5-year survival %	Significance
Observational studies
Caplin et al[14]	Switzerland	Colorectal	222	≤ 6	492	P = 0.0014
				≥ 7	682
Tepper et al[16]	National intergroup trial (United States)	Rectum	1664	< 5	642	P = 0.0081
				≥ 5 and < 9	632	P = 0.041
				≥ 9 and < 14	612	P = 0.021
				≥ 14	672
Cianchi et al[17]	Italy	Colorectal	140	≤ 8	54.92	P < 0.001
				> 9	79.92
Prandi et al[20]	National intergroup for Adjuvant Therapy on Colon Cancer (INTACC, Italy)	Colon	3648	0-7	81; 663	P trend = 0.00092
				8-12	812; 743	P trend < 0.00013
				13-17	872; 773
				≥ 18	892; 833
Law et al[22]	Canada	Colon	115	≤ 6	622	P = 0.03
				≥ 7	862
Le Voyer et al[23]	Intergroup Trial INT-0089 (United States)	Colon	3411	≤ 10	732; 804; 723	P < 0.00012
				11-20	802; 854;793	P = 0.154
				> 20	872; 924; 823	P = 0.10953
Tsai et al[28]	Taiwan	Colorectal	180	< 18	Percentage survival not stated	P = 0.015
				≥ 18	Percentage survival not stated
Vather et al[30]	New Zealand Cancer Registry (NZCR)	Colon	1945	Decreasing mortality with increasing lymph nodes. Greatest statistical difference between ≤ 12 and >12 nodes		P = 0.0001
Choi et al[31]	Hong Kong	Colorectal	664	< 21	603	P = 0.001
				≥ 21	803
Multicenter observational study
Swanson et al[24]	National cancer database (NCD, United States)	Colon	31 515	1-7	49.82	P < 0.0001
				8-12	56.22
				≥ 13	63.42

¹Compared with patients with ≥ 14 lymph nodes (LNs) examined;

²Overall survival;

³Disease free survival;

⁴Cause specific survival.