A less invasive endoscopic therapy has been used as a routine treatment for superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SESCC). However, lymph node metastasis (LNM) in SESCC limits the effectiveness of this medical procedure. This meta-analysis aimed to screen the risk factors for LNM in SESCC in Asia to provide evidence for clinicians in selecting treatment. We searched the main reference databases for research involving patients who received esophagectomy (open or minimally invasive) with lymph node dissection for SESCC. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Twenty studies including 3983 patients were obtained in this analysis. The meta-analysis showed that tumor size, macroscopic type of tumor, degree of differentiation, depth of tumor invasion, and lymphovascular involvement are risk factors of LNM in SESCC, whereas age, sex, and tumor location showed no association with LNM. Five variables were screened as predictive factors for LNM in SESCC. The incidence of LNM in SESCC is not rare, and the physicians must be careful when making clinical decisions.

中文翻译：

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亚洲浅表食管鳞状细胞癌淋巴结转移的预测：系统评价和荟萃分析。

侵入性较小的内窥镜治疗已用作浅表食管鳞状细胞癌（SESCC）的常规治疗。但是，SESCC中的淋巴结转移（LNM）限制了该医疗程序的有效性。这项荟萃分析旨在筛选亚洲SESCC中LNM的危险因素，为临床医生选择治疗提供依据。我们搜索了主要参考数据库，以进行涉及食管切除术（开放或微创）并伴有淋巴结清扫术的SESCC患者的研究。使用RevMan 5.3软件进行荟萃分析。该分析获得了20项研究，包括3983例患者。荟萃分析显示，肿瘤的大小，宏观类型，分化程度，肿瘤浸润深度和淋巴管受累是SESCC中LNM的危险因素，而年龄，性别和肿瘤位置与LNM无关。筛选了五个变量作为SESCC中LNM的预测因素。LESC在SESCC中的发生率并不罕见，医生在做出临床决定时必须小心。