The Prognostic Impact of Lymph Node Yield Upon Survival in Esophageal Cancer Broken Down by Neoadjuvant Strategy: A Multicenter European Cohort Study.

Chemotherapy data set: an optimal threshold of 25 nodes was identified (95% CI: 20-39).

Chemotherapy with ≥25 lymph node yield had ∼44% lower mortality compared with chemoradiotherapy after adjustment for potential confounding variables (HR=0.563, P<0.001).

Each positive LN increased the hazard for death by 7.3% in chemotherapy and 11.2% in chemoradiotherapy.

Disease recurrence occurred in 32.7% of chemotherapy versus 38.3% of chemoradiotherapy (P=0.001).