What could be the key elements to determine the optimal number of lymph nodes sampled?

It is obvious that lymph node status is a major determinant of stage and survival in patients with lung cancer. Precise lymph node staging allows more adequate treatment planning and early detection of disease recurrence. The role of lymphadenectomy itself, however, in terms of prognosis and cancer recurrence predicting contributors still remains unclear. This study of the article by David and colleagues in this issue of Annals of Thoracic Surgery is a large sample size study with population-based registry data where they sought to determine the influence