Analysis of the lymph node metastasis distribution in patients with invasive resectable non-small cell lung cancer

The current standard for the surgical management of lung cancer involves anatomic lung resection combined with systemic lymph node dissection/sampling. The purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns of pathological lymph nodes in invasive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), explore the occurrence in lymph node metastasis (LNM), and provide recommendations for optimal lymph node resection/sampling in lung cancer operation.