Factors affecting lymph node yield from patients undergoing colectomy for cancer

Purpose Lymph node (LN) yield is a critical component of colon cancer staging and is often a surrogate for quality assessment in surgery. We investigated the impact of pathologists' training on LN harvest. Methods This is a retrospective review on 137 patients undergoing elective colectomy for adenocarcinoma at a single institution from 2008 to 2009. We studied surgeon-, patient- and pathologist-derived factors, and identified independent variables affecting LN yield using logistic regression. Results LN yield was similar between open and laparoscopic resections (21 versus 23, p=0.54). Similarly, nodal counts were independent of tumor location (p=0.08) and no difference was noted between colorectal and general surgeons (24 versus 21, p=0.31). Strikingly, the number of LNs reported by PGY-1 pathology residents was significantly higher than those with two or more years of training (24 versus 19, p=0.02). On logistic regression, only the reporting pathologists' year in training remained a significant predictor of the number of nodes reported (OR=5.28, p=0.0001). Conclusions LN retrieval in patients with colon cancer is inversely related to the interpreting pathologists' level of training.