97
invades the other structures such as the aorta, vertebral body
or trachea, etc.
- The regional lymph nodes to search for metastases are peri-
esophageal lymph nodes, which include cervical nodes to celiac
lymph nodes (Fig. 4 ). N0 means absence of regional lymph
nodes metastases; N1 means 1–2 lymph nodes are positive for
metastatic adenocarcinoma; N2 means 3–6 lymph nodes are
positive for metastatic adenocarcinoma and N3 means 7 or
more lymph nodes involved by metastatic adenocarcinoma.
It is important to sample as many regional lymph nodes as
possible in pathological examination for accurate N staging of
patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma. In addition, the
number of lymph nodes required for accurate staging depends
Fig. 1 T1: esophageal adenocarcinoma (arrows) involves the submucosa of the esophagus
Fig. 2 T2: esophageal adenocarcinoma (arrow) involves the muscularis propria of the esophagus
Pathological Staging and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma