The clinical study on metastasis of abdominal lymph node for carcinoma of the thoracic esophagus

Objective: To study the pattern of abdominal lymph node metastasis in thoracic esophageal carcinoma and to analyze the factors influencing abdominal lymph node metastasis and the metastasis direction.Method: To analyze retrospectively the clinical materials of 212 patients who had undergone resection of thoracic esophageal carcinoma.Results: Abdominal lymph node metastases were found in 66 of the 212 patients(31.3%)and skip metastases of the abdominal lymph node in 8 patients(3.8%).In 2174 lymph nodes desected,metastases were identified in 242 lymph nodes(11.1%).The rates of abdominal lymph node metastasis were 12.8%,32.5%,42.0%,respectively,in upper,middle and lower thoracic esophageal carcinoma.The degree of tumor differentiation and depth of tumor invasion were factors influencing abdominal lymph node metastases.Conclusion: The rates of abdominal lymph node metastasis in lower thoracic esophageal carcinoma and middle thoracic esophageal carcinoma were larger than that in upper thoracic esophageal carcinoma.The character of metastasis of lymph node for esophagus carcinoma was skip metastasis.The operable patients with thoracic esophagus carcinoma should receive radical desection of the abdominal lymph nodes to improve the patients′ survival.