Background: A major reason for the high incidence of tumor recurrences in patients with apparently resectable non-small cell lung cancer is presumably early tumor cell dissemination, which is clearly underestimated by current staging procedures.
Methods: In this prospective study we assessed the frequency and prognostic significance of early lymphatic tumor cell spread to regional lymph nodes staged as tumor free by conventional histopathology by applying an immunohistochemical assay using monoclonal antibody Ber-Ep4.
Results: Ber-Ep4 positive cells were demonstrated in 27 (21.6%) of 125 patients and in 35 (6.2%) of 565 lymph nodes, respectively. Immunohistochemical analysis resulted in an up-staging in 24 of 27 patients. In patients previously staged as having pN0 disease, tumor cells were detected in 11/70 cases (15.7%). Univariate and multivariate survival analysis showed that the detection of minimal nodal tumor cell dissemination was associated with a reduced disease-free survival (log rank test, p = 0.0001; Cox regression model, p = 0.001).
Conclusions: The use of immunohistochemistry enables one to identify many patients with regional tumor cell dissemination at the time of operation. These patients might benefit from an adjuvant therapeutic regimen.