Association between number of dissected lymph nodes and survival in stage IA non-small cell lung cancer: a propensity score matching analysis.

Background: For patients with stage IA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with tumor size ≤ 2 cm, the prognostic significance of the number of removed lymph nodes (NLNs) through different surgical methods remains unclear. To determine the association of NLNs with cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with stage IA NSCLC with tumor size ≤ 2 cm who underwent different lung surgeries.

Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 7293 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database.