Advances of Mediastinal Lymph Node Metastasis and the Extent of Lymph Node 
Dissection in Patients with Stage T1 Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer ranks the first position in morbidity and mortality among all malignances in China. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for nearly 80% of all lung malignancies. Surgical resection is still the current major treatment method for early stage NSCLC. Lymph node stages together with the extent of lymph node dissection directly affect the prognosis. The site of primary lung carcinoma may affect the route and status of lymph node metastasis. Up to now, anatomical lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection is deemed to be the standard surgical treatment for NSCLC. However, it is still controversial in the extent of lymph node dissection for T1 NSCLC. More and more surgeons intend to perform selective mediastinal lymph node dissection instead of complete mediastinal lymph node dissection for T1 NSCLC in recent years