Prognostic value of node skip metastasis on esophageal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The association between NSM and prognosis of esophageal cancer remains controversial, though several studies have been conducted drawing their own conclusion. Therefore, we firstly carried out this metaanalysis aiming to explore the association. We performed a comprehensive literature search online, including PubMed, Embase and Web of Science. We selected deaths at 5 years and hazard ratio (HR) with 95% (CI) to perform the meta-analysis with Review Manager 5.3, predicting value of clinic-pathological features in NSM also been analyzed. A total of 7 studies were finally enrolled in this study. NSM, defined by either JSED criterion or anatomical compartment criterion, neither showed significant prognostic value on OS of esophageal cancer (P = 0.64), (P = 0.24). Subgroup analysis of JSED criterion, NSM was not a prognostic factor in solitary node metastasis patients (P = 0.39), whereas NSM demonstrated a poor prognostic factor (P = 0.01) for ESCC. Subgroup analysis according to anatomical criterion, NSM was a favorable factor for OS in middle thoracic ESCC (P = 0.003). Pathological N1 status was found to be a risk factor for NSM (P < 0.00001) according to JSED criterion and middle thoracic ESCC was identified as a predictor for NSM (P = 0.0003) according to anatomical compartment criterion. According to JSED criterion, NSM demonstrated poor prognosis on ESCC and N1 status was a risk factor for NSM. Concerning the anatomical compartment criterion, a favorable prognosis of NSM was found in middle thoracic ESCC and NSM was prone to occur in middle thoracic ESCC. CRD42021219333.(c) 2022 Asian Surgical Association and Taiwan Robotic Surgery Association. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).