Nodal stage of surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer and its effect on recurrence patterns and overall survival.

Purpose: Current National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) for patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with N2 involvement. We investigated the relationship between nodal stage and local-regional recurrence (LR), distant recurrence (DR) and overall survival (OS) for patients having an R0 resection.

Methods And Materials: A multi-institutional database of consecutive patients undergoing R0 resection for stage I-IIIA NSCLC from 1995 to 2008 was used.