Reply to Ding et al.

As we mentioned in this article, LN recurrence inside the area of systematic nodal dissection (SND) might be attributed to an inappropriate procedure for LN dissection. From the viewpoint of potential causes of LN recurrence, for surgeons, the significance of LN recurrence inside the SND area can be different from that of LN recurrence outside the SND area. With regard to the status of LN metastasis in the N1 lesion, among patients on observation alone, 135 (76.3%) had LN metastasis in the N1 lesion. We sought to determine why lymph node (LN) recurrence occurred inside the dissected area even after complete LN dissection. [Extracted from the article]