Accuracy of staging node-negative pancreas cancer: a potential quality measure.

Objective: To determine the optimal number of lymph nodes to examine for accurate staging of node-negative pancreatic adenocarcinoma after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Design, Setting, And Patients: Data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program (1988-2002) were used to identify 3505 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas, including 1150 patients who were pathologically node negative (pN0) and 584 patients with a single positive node (pN1a). Perioperative deaths were excluded.