Risk Factors and Sampling Range Evaluation of Lymph node Metastasis for 
Non-small Cell Lung Cancer with Diameter ≤2 cm

Background: More early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are diagnosed in time and treated surgically, but systematic lymph node dissection can not bring enough survival benefits for them, and even increase the probability of postoperative complications. This study aims to analyze the risk factors and evaluate mediastinal lymph node metastasis sites in different lung lobes for NSCLC with diameter ≤2 cm, so as to provide reference for surgery.

Methods: We collected 1051 patients with pulmonary nodule diameter ≤2 cm who were treated by pulmonary lobectomy with lymph node sampling/dissection in Department of Thoracic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University from December 2009 to December 2019. SPSS 26.0 statistical software was used for statistical analysis, to explore the risk factors and evaluate mediastinal lymph node metastasis sites in different lung lobes.

Results: 95 of 1051 (9.04%) patients presented lymph node metastasis. Male, pathological non-adenocarcinoma, 1 cm0.05). Lymph nodes in group N1 were significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis in groups #2R, #4R, #5, #6, #7 and #9 (P<0.01).

Conclusions: Lobe-specific lymph node dissection (LSND) can be performed for early-stage NSCLC. Male, pathological non-adenocarcinoma, 1 cm