Metastases to lymph nodes from carcinomas that were arrested

From the records of the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, 1168 patients were collected for study, all of whom had survived at least 5 years after resections for carcinoma. The majority had been followed-up for longer than 10 years. The sites of the carcinomas were the stomach, breast, colon and rectum. The purpose of the study was to determine how many lymph nodes containing metastases had been demonstrated in the operative specimens of patients whose tumors had been apparently arrested. No matter what the site of origin of the tumor, about 72% of survivors had no metastases and about 94% had metastases in three nodes or less. Less than 3% of survivors bad metastases in more than five lymph nodes. The authors give their opinions of how the choice of operations in the future should be affected by this demonstration of the infrequent success of surgical therapy over the years when the carcinoma is not confined to a few lymph nodes close to the tumor.